rssWhat the Exxon Valdez Does and Doesn’t Mean
Tuesday, March 24, 2009 at 12:02 pm
- 7 Comments
Today is the 20th anniversary of the Exxon Valdez oil spill which left 11 million gallons of black petroleum deposited on a pristine Alaska coastline. The Daily Green looks at the sorry aftermath, including how Exxon, thanks to the Supreme Court, paid a penalty that was less than one percent of its annual earnings. But DG needs to work on its math.
Every year since 1993, U.S. offshore oil drilling has spilled an average of 47,800 barrels of oil into the water. At that rate, it takes about 10 years to spill as much as was spilled during the Exxon Valdez disaster. Offshore oil drilling, seen that way, is just a slow-moving spill.
Wrong. At that rate, it would take 230 years to equal the Exxon Valdez spillage.
Update: As a commenter pointed out, our math is wrong as well. We confused gallons with barrels. It will actually take just more than six years. We regret the error.
7 Comments
Comment posted March 24, 2009 @ 10:05 am
Everyone id wrong with their math! Allow me to explain…
There are 42 U.S. Gallons in one Barrel of oil. 42 times 47,800 equals 2,007,600 Gallons. So in actuality, it would require somewhat less than Six Years for offshore drillling operations to spill the same amount of oil as the Valdez calamity.
Comment posted March 24, 2009 @ 11:07 am
Original author of the piece on The Daily Green, here. Thanks, Jefferson, for identifying this error. We've corrected it now, and by my math (this time) Allen Brooks is right.
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Comment posted March 24, 2009 @ 4:15 pm
1 barrel is 45 gallons.
47,800 barrels is 2,151,000 gallons
It would less than six years to release the equivalent of Valdez
Comment posted March 24, 2009 @ 5:05 pm
Everyone id wrong with their math! Allow me to explain…
There are 42 U.S. Gallons in one Barrel of oil. 42 times 47,800 equals 2,007,600 Gallons. So in actuality, it would require somewhat less than Six Years for offshore drillling operations to spill the same amount of oil as the Valdez calamity.
Comment posted March 24, 2009 @ 6:07 pm
Original author of the piece on The Daily Green, here. Thanks, Jefferson, for identifying this error. We've corrected it now, and by my math (this time) Allen Brooks is right.
Comment posted March 24, 2009 @ 11:15 pm
1 barrel is 45 gallons.
47,800 barrels is 2,151,000 gallons
It would less than six years to release the equivalent of Valdez
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