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BP and Me: How The Oil Spill Changed My Mind on Electric Cars

 
3,487 views Sep 25, 2010
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Navarre Beach, Florida by SCFiasco on Flickr

Navarre Beach, Florida by SCFiasco on Flickr

As a writer for a group of car sites with 3 million readers each month, I don't think I need to explain how much gasoline has changed my life. I've seen the world from street level because of it. It's fueled me.

Oil has caused me agita this year, too. It's played havoc with a place I see myself someday, when I'm divorced from work. And it's made me wonder if electric cars--or how much electrification of cars--is in the practical future.


We like to call it "Florida's Best-Kept Secret," but it's been hard to keep Navarre Beach a secret in the past six years. For starters, there was Ivan, a category 3 hurricane that made landfall about 30 miles to the west of us. Word of warning: when The Weather Channel's Jim Cantore shows up on your beach, you're doomed.

Ivan was punishment enough, but that September day in 2004 was followed quickly by July of 2005 and Hurricane Dennis, a direct hit. And then in September, by the monster that was Katrina, which flattened Mississippi with atomic fury and caused 20-foot storm surge from 200 miles away, swiping away our fragile coastal road like an asphalt game of Jenga. If you've seen my old profile pics here on High Gear Media, lying on a chunk of road, you've seen the debris.

Fast-forward to 2010, five years since the threat of storm season bore anything seriously menacing. Off in the Gulf, an oil rig exploded--and suddenly, BP became our new Ivan, or Katrina.

Natural disasters, you face them with a sullen acceptance, while you walk miles where a road used to be to cut mold out of drywall. This was different, this was angry. And as it unfolded in April and May, then June, then July, the inability of industry and government to explain how it happened, or how it would never happen again, laid bare our fellow bushwackers' anxiety. The realization that the immediate problem was incompetence, but the long-term problem was with oil.

You've been witness to everything since. At a micro level, what BP did to our beach may not be as bad as predicted. Some disgusting patties of frothy oil showed up on the snow-white sand we're famed for, as did quarter-sized blobs of more pure crude. Fifty miles west, Orange Beach, Alabama, went vividly orange under waves of unprocessed oil. We got off lightly.

If you found BP CEO Tony Hayward's behavior galling, imagine watching while picturing your retirement dissolving in inky pollution. Or while wondering if the herons you fed on the dunes outside your deck would ever come back.






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Comments (9)

  1. fb_1001015277 avatar John Briggs Posted: 9/25/2010 10:46am PDT

    Great piece.
    Didn't quite connect the dots between burning oil, global warming and hurricanes, but perhaps those dots don't connect.
    I really appreciate the attitude here.
    "I'm choosing an electric car as my next new vehicle, not to prove a point, but to see if it's a rational future."
    He is not saying EVs are the answer, but he is saying two things (in my opinion). 1) EVs might be the answer and 2) There needs to be a change, the old system is not working for us any more.
    It is worth hearing from a "car guy" that 0-60 acceleration or getting around in an SUV the size of a livingroom might not be the most important feature in the future of travel.
    Marty, as an oil user, I feel sorry for my part in fouling your beaches.
    Worth considering that the move to EVs needs to be accompanied by a switch to renewable energy so that the mess along the gulf isn't traded for a mess in West Virginia.
    Later
    John C. Briggs
     
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  2. cdspeed Posted: 9/25/2010 11:30am PDT

    I live on the Gulf coast although too far south to see any oil. I remember thinking as I watched the news " why are we willing to take such risks for oil?" of course the answer is simple, it's our addiction to oil and the money to be made. Its scary to think that this disaster was caused by only one oil rig because there are several thousand more of them in the Gulf of Mexico alone. Its sad really, our lives are based on oil and few people really realize it.
    I have always loved cars classic and new, but in the last five years I have decided to go electric with my automotive passions. I love the idea of enjoying the drive and cutting my dependance on gas stations and the politics that surround them.
     
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  3. cdspeed Posted: 9/25/2010 1:00pm PDT

    @ John Briggs, 0-60 is where the fun is in enthusiast driving. It's the one performance spec you can use, it's the top speed that no one really ever uses. Think of all the people that admire a Bugatti Veyron for its top speed even though most Bugatti owner's ,the few of them that there are, will never attempt it. Not all of us use cars merely to get from a to b. Thats another reason I love EVs, you can use the instant torque to take off or shoot around corners quickly while achieving zero emissions and eliminate your dependance on oil foreign, or domestic .
     
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  4. KeiJidosha Posted: 9/25/2010 1:41pm PDT

    In 1969 there was lots of oil. On the beach in Santa Barbara. In 1974, I pushed a 4,500 pound Ford Country Squire Station Wagon for almost a quarter mile in a gas line. Because we didn’t have enough oil. In 1979, my new bride and I went for a walk on the beach on our honeymoon. We spent the evening cleaning tar off our feet, carpet, and shoes with toluene from the hardware store. In Santa Barbara.
    In 1990 Iraq invaded Kuwait. Over oil. In 2003 we invaded Iraq. To protect our oil interests. In June of 2007, I paid $5.12 a gallon for regular, driving to my daughter’s graduation. In 2009, my daughter saw her friend killed while serving in Basra. Protecting oil fields.
    In 2009 I started driving an EV. And found that all the above was unnecessary.
     
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  5. rsnipes Posted: 9/26/2010 5:33am PDT

    Electric cars are a great idea and seem to be the ultimate or perfect solution to solving our dependency on oil: foreign and domestic. But, once we plug into our electric outlets to "refuel" these "new-fangled" cars, what will be the energy source for this power? Sure, we're all hoping that it will be the solar panel on the roof or the windmill spinning wildly in the back yard; but chances are, we're back to ocean crude and foreign oil. Are we being optimistic here or just naively sinking into a hidden crude oil puddle?
     
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  6. Nicholas Peterson Posted: 9/26/2010 5:46am PDT

    Electrical cars will be the future, since it's the most efficient way to plan future transportation. It allows a variety of sources of energy. People often mention that electrical use will spike and we'll need oil to meet demand, but luckily as time goes on that demand goes down as other technologies keep coming online in the renewable arena. This will allow us to ween ourselves off of oil. Solar Panels make the most sense honestly, especially since the prices keep falling on them. What we really need is government to step up and require builders to install them in new developments on rooftops, that way we start decentralizing the grid and allowing home buyers to purchase solar panels without getting separate loans, planning, and advice.
     
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  7. NJ Vet Posted: 9/26/2010 6:14am PDT

    There is a lot of promise with electric cars as long as the electric is produced in a way that is eco friendly as well. A good sign that they have a future is the emergence of competition in the field: Chevy Volt, an electric Ford Focus, Zenn Motor Company. Using Algae to power things is another concept worth exploration.
     
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  8. fb_1001015277 avatar John Briggs Posted: 9/26/2010 6:56am PDT

    @rsnipes The risk is not that we will make electricity from oil (we don't do that in the USA), the risk is that we will make it from coal.
    @cdspeed If the driving experience of EVs is good for car enthusiast, so much the better. I recently watch a series on NetFlix called American Muscle Cars. I was really struck by how much effort was put into improving 0-60 and 1/4 mile performance during the 1960's. I can only imagine what could be achieved by the same engineers if they focused on efficiency.
     
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  9. Daryl Posted: 9/29/2010 6:35pm PDT

    @John Briggs -- We actually produce a lot of electricity in the U.S. from petroleum. Check the DOE out. Here's an excerpt for TX, the state I live in. http://www.eia.doe.gov/state/state_energy_profiles.cfm?sid=TX Many states have oil fired electric generation. It's actually rather common.
     
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