Pancake Syrup and BP

This morning Jeff came back from surfing with a hunger for pancakes, so I was forced into domestic duties at the kitchen counter which was actually a nice respite from my preparations for the annual Waterkeeper conference this coming week.

He walked in as I was keeping pancakes warm in the oven while cooking more on the stove top. "You're warming up a pitcher of pancake syrup in a hot oven without a saucer under it? What? Do you work for BP??," my husband said to me in a pretty irritated voice.

He was extremely upset that I had obviously given no thought as to what would happen if all the syrup spilled in the hot oven.

And I have to admit, he's right. What a mess that would be. It would be impossible to clean it up. I'd have a ruined oven on my hands, and there's little room in our budget to replace the appliance, so my only option would leave me with many, many hours to clean the oven by hand, scrubbing, dismantling, and in the end have to leave much of the syrup in there, to eventually burn away (while smoking up the house and affecting taste of food cooked in the oven.)

And so our breakfast conversation was dominated by the BP oil catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico.

I deal with the consequences of unenforced environmental laws and lack of government oversight on a daily basis. So what has happened in the Gulf does not surprise me in the least. It was only a matter of time.

But I'm still plenty angered. At least now the rest of the country is getting a quick education into how those who are supposed to protect us spend most of their time looking for ways to circumvent environmental assessment procedures, dream up waiver schemes to weaken environmental regulations, and oh, so easily give in to industry lobbyists.

They do all this with absolutely no 'what if' contingency plans in place. In this country, heck even here in Maryland and my own local county, action is ONLY taken when there is a crisis. Those of us in the community who ask our officials to be pro-active are usually scoffed at with attitudes like "why scare the public?....we'll deal with it when it becomes necessary…we don't have the resources to do this."

What is frustrating is that whenever someone suggests that industry should be watched or regulated, there is always some fool "standing up" for the business community. I think that those of us who call for regulation understand better than anyone else that the bottom line drives business decisions. Regulation is the only thing that will keep business from feeding our pets poisoned food, our children poisoned baby formula, giving our children toys painted with lead based paint, or feeding us food tainted with e-coli, salmonella, or mad cow disease.

The BP crisis is example of why more than ever, we can clearly see that shortchanging environmental protection in the name of free markets, deficit reduction or economic growth will inevitably backfire with disastrous consequences for everyone.

Some statistics about the environmental infrastructure of the State of Louisiana (from the NWF):

• 40% of US oysters
• 50% US shrimp
• 35% US blue claw crabs
• 40% of US wetlands.

The economic impact of the BP oil spill on the US economy based on these numbers alone is staggering. And note that I haven't even mentioned the impact on tourism which provides thousands of jobs and billions of dollars to those who live on the gulf coast.

 And why could we lose all this? We could lose it because some lobbyist convinced a legislator to weaken a regulation, or a regulatory authority made a decision to relax their responsibilities, all for the cause of improving the "bottom line."


We are to blame as much as BP - we need oil for our cars and to power our insatiable energy needs.  That is why we must be more vocal and demand of our government (state and federal) more sustainable options, more oversight for industries that can pollute on this level, and then we must elect people who have the political will and the stomach to do this.


Folks, you've got to think about the consequences of every action before you take it - and if the consequences are as bad as pancake syrup spilled in a hot oven you probably shouldn't do it.

(AP Photo/
Charlie Riedel)