Hydrocarbon Hucksters: Lessons from Louisiana on Oil, Politics, and Environmental Justice

More required reading for civics classes and responsible citizens interested in good government.

The question is, what would a state look like if Big Oil had free reign, as it claims it needs and claims to be able to manage for the good of all?Louisiana is living proof that oil money does not bring wealth, health, higher living standards or any kinds of happiness to the state where it is found. Despite 4000 active oil wells clogging the Gulf of Mexico, 40,000 on land and at least 60,000 derelict wells onshore and 27,000 more offshore, Louisiana is one of the poorest, most miserable states in the union, last or near last in almost every category.Just like an African petro nation, the money simply disappears and never trickles down to the population. Big Oil, politicians, oilmen and senior civil servants rake it off, leaving nothing. Big oil claims to pump $65 billion a year into Louisiana's economy (twice the state budget of just $26 billion), yet oil and gas account for only 3% of employment, in a state with only 4 million people. From the way they brag, you would think it was 33%. But with 44,000 active wells, only 50-80 thousand are employed to service them or support companies that do. (And no one is employed to deal with the derelict ones.) This despite there being the equivalent of a well every square mile in the state, one for every hundred people.Some of the other sobering stats:Median income $15,500, 18% poverty rate, 31% child poverty rate, violent crime at 159% of the national average, just 21% of adults with a bachelor's degree, 1800 lbs average chemical pollution per square mile (3 times the national average), and life expectancy of 74, last or second to last in the nation. A US record 429 are serving life sentences without parole for non violent crimes. So much for oil wealth; the locals are about the worst off in the country.Because the industry has never been required to clean up after itself, the abandoned wells are just the icing on the surface cake. The miles of canals the companies dug are spreading and eroding, sending floodwaters to the towns and eroding the shores and islands. 80% of the whole nation's coastal region land loss occurs in Louisiana. "By any measure Louisiana is the most polluted state in the nation." That's the legacy of big oil rampant.Big Oil controls the government like a Tammany Hall, ensuring absolutely nothing is implemented that would regulate, inspect or slow it down. Any bill giving support to victims of derelicts, of trash, of pollution, of noise, of crop damage - is dead on arrival. The governor, the senators, the reps - they're all there with just one mission - protect big oil. That's what they're paid to do.The book is a breezy affair, a personal journal as well as trial. The embarrassment that this goes on is heartfelt. Hydrocarbon Hucksters looks at disasters elsewhere, but Louisiana is so far "ahead" in terms of total ecological and economic disaster, the others pale.How can this vicious circle be broken? Clearly, when the oil runs out, so will big oil. Meanwhile, there are several pages of recommendations to rationalize the miasma. Most of the recommendations are pie in the sky - like removing tax advantages of oil companies (Exxon pays zero taxes). But among the recommendations is an interesting one to require oil companies to clean up two sites before they can start drilling a new one. This neatly handles the all too common situations today, where the company disappears or uses delaying tactics, or just doesn't care. These obligations could be traded or sold, making a business of restoration and employing tens of thousands meaningfully. Brilliant.Hydrocarbon Hucksters is a definitive condemnation of big oil uncontrolled. It is not optimistic. It is not prescriptive. It documents the total unnecessary degradation to the point of complete destruction of an entire state and its residents.David Wineberg