Large Fierce Mammal

Writer H. L. Mencken once said, “It is hard to believe that a man is telling the truth when you know that you would lie if you were in his place.” Those words came to mind as I read the article that appeared on the CBC website this morning titled “Deep Water Oil Drill Record Excellent: Chevron“.

As the title implies, Chevron Canada executives are trying to soothe public concerns over their stated intentions to drill for oil in 2600 meters of water at a location just north of the Grand Banks, 430 kilometers northeast of St. John’s Newfoundland. The article describes the intended drill site as being “… significantly deeper than the Deepwater Horizon project in the Gulf of Mexico, “ and quotes Chevron vice-president Mark MacLeod as saying, “Chevron has drilled over 300 deepwater wells. We’ve never had a blowout in deep water.”

Taken as a simple statement of facts as known to date, I’m sure Mr. MacLeod’s words are completely true, but they carry the implication that drilling for oil in deep water would be safe as long as Chevron does it, and therein lies a deeper and even more reprehensible falsehood. His quote reminded me of another one, in this case spoken in my presence some years back. Canadian Forces Base Cornwallis in Nova Scotia’s Annapolis Valley region had been decommissioned, placed under civilian management, and renamed Cornwallis Park. I had undertaken the contract to assess the state of fire alarm and assorted other protective systems in all the buildings in the Park, and to make recommendations for repairs and upgrades where required.

The water treatment plant was one of those buildings. It employed old technology that used gaseous chlorine as the disinfecting agent, and there was a considerable amount of the stuff on site. The building was equipped with a fire alarm system, and to this was connected a chlorine sensor. As I stepped into the building I could see that the green standby light on the fire alarm system was lit, but when I opened the door of the control cabinet I discovered that the light was the only part of the system that was actually functional. Someone had wired a Radio Shack power adapter – the kind that you’d use to power any variety of low voltage electronic devices from a wall socket – directly to the light to give the impression of normalcy. In every other respect the entire system was dead, and only the standby light worked.

I photographed and documented the situation and presented my evidence along with all my other findings at a meeting held the following week to hear my report. Among the big wigs at the meeting was the man who was then the Emergency Measures Coordinator for the municipality in which Cornwallis Park was located. This was the person responsible for writing and exercising emergency response plans for his municipality – keep that in mind as you read on.

When I reached the point in my presentation in which the state of the water treatment plant was disclosed, I could see a sudden change of mood in Mr. EMO. Silent for a moment, he suddenly demanded to know why that building even needed a fire alarm system. In the full knowledge that I was wasting my breath, I patiently explained the toxic effects of chlorine gas and the risks associated with an undetected fire causing a massive leak. Well, that did it. He slammed his hand down on the table and belted out this gem – “We’ve never had a fire in that building and we’re not planning to have one!” That, ladies and gentlemen, is stupid on a professional level.

No matter what Chevron Canada or any other oil company says, events in the Gulf of Mexico show that safeguards and precautions notwithstanding, the technology does not presently exist to plug these holes if things go to shit. We already own one such debacle and we don’t need any more. Ever.

As an unrepentant capitalist with fingers up to the eyebrows in two full time businesses, I am all for the free market economy, but big business is an entirely different, voracious, and single minded animal. When a small business owner says his operation lost money he means he made less money than he spent so profit was a negative number. When a major corporation announces a loss, what it actually means is that profits this time around were less than they would have liked. We set out to make a profit of fifty billion dollars this quarter and ended up with a profit of only thirty-five billion – jeeze Louise, we lost fifteen billion dollars! Pity the poor misunderstood CEO who has to bear such horrible news to the shareholders who now must dry the tears of bitter disappointment, forced to endure their salty sting upon hands with palms that are raw from too much rubbing together. My heart bleeds for these people constantly.

Up to now, environmental destruction and devastation by big business has been death by a thousand cuts, and when reprehensible acts are committed in remote locations, access to which is controlled by the perpetrator, it’s easy to cover them up. “Nobody saw” gets equated with “didn’t happen”, but that methodology went off the rails in the Gulf of Mexico. Unbridled greed has really outdone itself this time.

Let there be no more graphic examples of just how far man’s reach exceeds his grasp. Oil company shareholders may just need to learn the realities of living with smaller dividends or — cripes, here’s a thought — invest in some other energy technology that doesn’t equate to shitting where you sleep.