Gulf of Mexico Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Could Have Been Avoided Had American Regulators Used Common Sense and the Precautionary Principle

15 May 2010

Favoring energy development should not mean having to favor recklessness

Favoring a blend of oil exploration, nuclear power generation, cleaner coal technology, and green energy development should not mean having to favor reckless stupidity in their pursuit. Yet the operative paradigm these days seems to put greed before brain.

BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil spill shows (again) American governmental laxity

BP, aided by American regulators (who appear to have been sucking their thumbs and sitting on their diapered behinds), has endangered a large ecosystem, as well as the thousands of people who made their livings in it.

Drilling for oil 5,000 feet under water, without proven technology and oversight, was reckless. Unreasoned disregard seems to be the way humanity approaches the planet that supports our lives. We use our brains to exploit, but not to nurture.

The Gulf of Mexico oil spill disaster is another link in a chain of regulatory failures that are taxing the world’s public to benefit wealthy corporations and political incumbents in their service.

Application of the Precautionary Principle would have avoided the Deepwater Horizon spill

What is lacking in the to and fro between robber barons and their tree-hugging opponents is a paradigm that reasonably tries to meet humanity’s needs without going over-board in an extreme directions. The Precautionary Principle could serve as a useful guide in regulating the collision between greed, technology, and careless entrepreneurship versus the public interest.

The Precautionary Principle defined

The Precautionary Principle posits that people should protect health and environment, even in the absence of clear evidence of harm, and the burden of proving the safety of an action should fall on the one who proposes it. [1] The Principle is intended for those situations where risks cannot be reliably estimated, when science is ignorant and risk probabilities undiscovered

The concept's preventive rigor varies along a spectrum. [2] On the radical end, all risks to the environment should be minimized, even if proof of a causal link to damage or safety is inadequate. [3] On the more workable end, proportionality and cautionary costs are figured in. [4]

Basic elements of precautionary decision-making

Generally speaking, precautionary decision-making may be characterized by: [5]

(1) a duty to act cautiously when faced with uncertain consequences;

(2) setting goals for environmental and health protection;

(3) shifting proof of safety to the initiator of possibly harmful action;

(4) requiring the assessment of alternatives to the proposed action;

(5) evolving appropriate analytical techniques and decision-making criteria;

(6) using damage-minimizing methods in actions of any kind;

(7) applying economic incentives to promote environmental/public health;

(8) monitoring the effects of actions underway; and

(9) involving the public in decision-making.

Under this scheme, society develops a vision of where it wants to go and works analytically backward from that vision, delineating the steps necessary to achieve it. [6]

Elements required for successful application of the Precautionary Principle

In practice, the Precautionary Principle requires widespread agreement regarding the following general principles:

(1) Precautionary thinking has a vital place in protecting health and environment, when society agrees that preserving or enhancing both are overarching goals.

(2) Open transparency is the most vital component of precautionary thinking.

(3) To be effective, the Principle requires an existing political and administrative infrastructure accustomed to thinking in anticipatory terms in the face of uncertain data.

(4) Each subunit of this structure must have clearly established chains of accountability, and the whole must flow toward placing ultimate responsibility in the premier political institutions of the nation.

(5) Administrative/executive structures must have timely access to in-house scientific expertise, which itself can draw upon readily-identified outside experts.

(6) Anticipatory thinking requires participants who:

(a) have an intensely practical knowledge of how the world's workplaces operate;

(b) are willing to research and manage by walking around;

(d) are biased in favor of quickly reacting to inchoate emergencies;

(e) and are accustomed to flowcharting processes and materials to ensure that all conceivable bases have been covered.

(7) And finally, the legal/judicial system must be willing to facilitate precaution. [7]

The European Union’s application of Precaution during the Mad Cow scare is a pattern to follow

The EU implemented the Precautionary Principle by quarantining United Kingdom beef during the Mad Cow scare.

In brief, the UK let a disease of cows spread to human beings by underplaying the potential risk. Acting very much as American regulators do, the UK government essentially chose to protect cattle producers and the beef market at the expense of the public health. The EU acted in the reverse, supporting its position by applying the Precautionary Principle in a legal sense.

There is no doubt that the EU’s precautionary position was the wiser one.

Applying the Precautionary Principle requires that Americans bring democracy back

Application of the Precautionary Principle only works in societies that broadly treasure health and environment. When plutocrats rule, protecting what is ultimately most precious to people is unlikely to work. Sensible caution costs plutocrats money. They ask themselves, why should they pay upfront when they have the wealth to escape after the disasters they cause?

Democracy is not perfect, but it is better than plutocracy’s fouling of the nest

If you, as a citizen, want to be reasonably safe, healthy, and environmentally rich, you will need to join with like-minded people to unclench the plutocrats’ grip on American government.

Instead of reviling government, let’s put some people with brains, spine, and a public service orientation back into it.

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Gulf of Mexico Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Could Have Been Avoided Had American Regulators Used Common Sense and the Precautionary Principle