In Lee Clarke’s view, the disaster surrounding the BP oil spill resulted from an American government that failed to regulate BP and other large oil corporations.

‘When oil hits the fan, innocent people pay for it,’ he said.

These sentiments were echoed throughout ‘Blowout: What the Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill Means for You and the Future of American Energy,’ a panel discussion Tuesday night in Hendricks Chapel. Clarke, an associate professor of sociology at Rutgers University, was one of four panelists who spoke about how capitalism and the American government exacerbated the BP oil spill.

Many members of the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry and Syracuse University community attended the event and asked questions to generate discussion with the panelists.

The oil spill occurred due to three levels of failure: leadership, organization and politics, Clarke said. He said blame should be placed upon the regulators who were willing to make empty promises and the government’s pressure for more oil production. 

‘When the mantra was, ‘Go, go, go,’ and, ‘Drill, baby, drill,’ safety takes a backseat,’ he said. 

Kishi Animashaun Ducre, SU assistant professor of African American studies and another speaker for the panel, said capitalism and the U.S. political system contributed to this disaster. In the American system, corporations tend to win out over smaller businesses and individuals, such as the fishermen in the Gulf Coast, she said. 

‘Many people claim that to solve the problem, we need to change the individual,’ she said. ‘The first line of defense is not to buy a Prius but to change corporations and politics.’

Matt Huber, SU assistant professor of geography and a speaker for the panel, said the American way of living requires too much petroleum, which also contributed to the disaster. 

The government needs to improve regulation of the oil companies and should have put the government in charge of cleaning up the spill, Huber said.

‘After the spill, BP was the expert to clean it up,’ he said. ‘In a comedy of errors, their plan included an emergency contact who had been dead for five years.’ 

Although most of the panelists criticized the government’s role in the oil spill, panelist Christopher Scholz, an SU earth sciences professor, said he was impressed with Congress and its efforts to be informed on the issue.

While the event was devastating to the Gulf, it has raised the awareness of the American public. Scholz said the country is now in a better position to move forward.

Scholz said he hopes the American public will continue to pay attention to the long-term effect of the oil spill. When a disaster occurs, people pay attention briefly until something else serves as a distraction, Scholz said. For example, not many Americans know or care about the recent cholera outbreak in Haiti, despite January’s earthquake in Haiti, he said.

Victoria Lee, a junior architecture major, said she was impressed by the commentary and the variety of speakers. She said her favorite panelist was Huber because of his discussion about the role of the government.

Beverly Reynolds, a junior in ESF, said she enjoyed the presentation but thought something was lacking. 

‘It was good, but a bit one-sided,’ she said. ‘It would have been better if someone from the oil industry was there.’

cabidwel@syr.edu

Published on October 26, 2010 at 12:00 pm

Contact Colleen: cbidwill@syr.edu