It appears Chevron is going to be held accountable for a leaking oil rig off the Brazilian coast.
A Brazilian judge has banned 17 employees of the American oil firm and drilling-rig operator Transocean from leaving the country “as authorities prepare to file criminal charges in days in connection with an offshore oil spill involving the companies,” according to The New York Times.
The ruling by Judge Vlamir Costa Magalhães, issued late Friday night, adds to Chevron’s woes in Brazil, which began last November when oil was found to be leaking from an offshore field controlled by Chevron. Prosecutors have already filed a civil lawsuit seeking damages of 20 billion reais, or about $11.2 billion, from the company.
What’s worse, as the Times reports, “Brazil’s Navy and Chevron said Friday that they had detected a new oil sheen from the field where the earlier spill occurred.”
The spill off Brazil’s coast is just the latest example of the dangers of drilling in deep waters — and the broader dangers that extractive technologies will pose as we seek to sate our thirst for cheap energy.
Drilling and mining — and not just for oil, but for natural gas, coal and uranium — pose serious threats to our oceans, rivers and farmland, our drinking water and the stability of the ground on which we stand.
We are going to hear a lot about gas prices in the coming months, along with calls for more drilling — off the coast, in the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve in Alaska — even though the drilling will have no effect on prices. The BO and Chevron spills, the polluted water near gas drilling sites and the Ohio earthquakes need to be a part of this discussion, as well.
Drill, baby, drill is as inane a solution to our energy woes as it is a simplistic and sophomoric slogan.
Hank Kalet 