The Lessons of Montara

In the aftermath of the catastrophic Montara OilSpill,it is time for Australia to take stock.

• The Australian Federal Government have put in place an inquiry, headed by a public servant, which is almost certain to hold the Australian government blameless.
• Government sourced media reports seemed in the main sourced from the oil based interests at the centre of the disaster(Atlas & PTTEP Australia).
• The Area licensee Thai based PTTEP, has been issued further concessions by the Minister for Resources.The company took some 10 weeks to plug the well and notify of finally capping Montara 13 January 2010-6 months after the initial leakage.
• A report 13 Jan 2010 has organisation NOPSA slamming the Northern Territory Government for failing to have adequate monitoring equipment in place to ensure compliance. Montara is situated in Western Australian waters.
• Reports of Feburary 11th are that further license concessions have been granted to PTTEP, prior to completion of the inquiry.
• Further revelations to the glacial inquiry process provide a accounts of numerous systemic failures and safety breaches by the drilling operator, possibly due to inappropriate direction from PTTEP. The fact that such breaches could occur point to the fact that Australian Governments at State and federal levels have inappropriate legislation or monitoring or compliance regimes in place.

While there is a general consensus to apportion blame to well owner PTTEP and its contractors there has been some commentary also on the Australian Federal and State governments post disaster roles. There has been little public consideration of the legal framework which govern extractive operators at National or International levels.

The post event reports from federal government show that a yawning void exists in terms of compliance monitoring. There is no mention from government of inspections of operations prior to the event. Lack of response to the question, put Nov 2009 to the Environment and Natural Resources ministries entitles us to believe that there simply weren't any. Further checks of legislation show scant regard given to ensuring disaster management or environmental remedial obligations are placed on the extractives operator.

Australians must seek:

• Laws compelling ALL Extractive Industries to maintain adequate mitigation technology within close proximity to mitigate all extractive process failures, prior to commencement of process as a precondition of extractive all processes.
• No exemptions regime.
• Immediate Resumption of extractive process license area, plus all mitigation costs as breach penalty.
• Reduction of "Super Profits" Tax to compensate for extractive compliance costs.
• Broadening of "Super Profits" Tax to include non extractive businesses, such as banks and financial institutions. Consolidation of "Super Tax revenues" as "Future Fund" modelled on Norways oil based example.

Without strong legislation, it can be argued that extractive industry management have a duty of care to shareholders to operate their extractive processes at the lowest cost legally available to them: if a company is not legally obliged to use the latest, most failsafe technology available, the company directors are arguably duty bound to use a cheaper,older technology, if the failure risk is manageable,on purely the basis of cost.

This style of legislation is

Crude:The Real Cost of Oil.

Crude; The real cost of Oil ( Trailer) ... the must see eco movie of the decade.

It is perhaps unusual to use a promo for a movie as a headline.People, its really that important. The documentary is absolutely compelling , a well researched piece of investigative journalism too hot for the mainstream media to handle, and too big to make into a mini series.If it were made into a mini=series, who would watch it?

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Promoted as Chevrons Chernobyl , its actually Chernobyl, 3 mile Island, The Torrey Canyon Disaster and Bhopal rolled into one. Fifteen years in the making, a case pursued by the marginalized

indigenous peoples of Equador will soon be decided upon by the Equadorean Judiciary. It may be the largest corporate liability payout ever ordered. The case has been doggedly enabled by a committed lawyer whose local blood ties connected him inextricably to the case.

Chevron, whose subsidiary Texaco committed this mega act of #ecovand

al-ism has tried every possible legal move to stymie proceedings and shirk its responsibility,must be held accountable.Their contention that they are absolved of responsibilit

y by a deal struck with the then Ecuadorean government & PetroEcuador may well absolve any responsibility they may have to Ecuadors government- it may not. Clearly, the local people who are affected by this deadly toxic cocktail were not party to this lecherous deal.

The movie is about a disaster of no small consequence; Environmental damages of an area the size of Rhode Island.An area occupied in the main by disenfranchised indigenous people unable to compete with the funding incentives multinationals outlay to obtain favorable treatment from usually conservative governments whose short term agendae usually revolve around developing the veste

d interests of government members or their connections. CRUDE tells the story of Texaco Chevrons practices in Equador so fully , we are not going to try and retell it.That would be completely unnecessary.

Suffice to say t

here is much entertainment from the total lack of irony demonstrated by Chevron staff directors and consultants as they attempt to use science to justify the unjustifiable.

Chevron is but one of the many shirts worn by Big Oil & Big Mining.Really, Chevron is just one investment vehicle-a shirt worn by investors and directors who would have long since fled that company.Their resources would doubtless be deployed in equally deplorable circumstances creating equaI socio environmental havoc in the name of profit.

@Oil_Leaks aim is to identify and marginalise such potential investments, ensuring that greedy investors

and directors who perpetrate such despicable acts are held corporately and personally responsible. @Oil_Leaks will also participate in the implementation of an ethical investments database, 'The Fair Trade of Investment' with the additional criteria that the investment is not exploitative or destructive of indigenous culture & resources.

What you can do:

• Become involved in "Project Oil Leaks". We are a loose alliance of activists committed to taking whatever action is necessary to bring such unconscienceable acts of #socio #ecovandal-ism to the attention of the world,outing those responsible, naming & shaming every level of responsibility from mum & dad investors to their end delivery systems. They rely on money to buy the many tools which shield them from responsibility. We rely on people, integrity and creativity.
• Your first step is to edit from your life those resources you use which detrimentally impact people and their environment. By doing so you will decrease your carbon footprint & your moral responsibility.You may choose, for example to exchange the petrol powered vehicle you use for a more eco-friendly electric or renewable fuel powered vehicle.You may choose to reduce reliance on energy consumption for heating & cooling by insulating your home efficiently.You may wish to consider solar power & water heating which will reduce recurring costs as well as delivering a clean green carbon footprint.Contact us via DM for advice.
• RETWEET our messages on Twitter.
• Notify us of oil or mining #ecovandalism by corporates or government in your area. You may wish to write articles for posting which should reference factual resources.
• Online Activists: are needed. One of the most effective tools we use is Google Maps.List the locations of distributors ( such as Chevron gas stations) and give them a really bad review.Link to our blog or blog posts.
• Join or organise a socio - ecological compliance group in your area.We will help!!!