The Observer, July 2005

return to this edition

From the Executive Director

Past year seems to point to big issues in the future

By John Devens, Executive Director

Each year at this time, we pause to review the past 12 months, to take stock of what’s been accomplished and what lies ahead.

On the list of accomplishments, we note that this year saw significant progress on the issue of exercising Alyeska’s escort tugs and on addressing some problems with towline breaks that turned up in those exercises.

The past year also saw release of the state’s report on Alaska’s first Best Available Technology Conference. While it wasn’t perfect from the council’s point of view, it’s a start and we look forward to working with the state to improve the Best Available Technology process.

Two examples of the partnership approach favored by the council came to fruition in the past year. One was our work with the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation and the Coast Guard on potential places of refuge in Prince William Sound. These are bays where a stricken tanker could be towed so that the leak could be confined to a relatively small area, rather than contaminating hundreds of miles of shoreline as the Exxon Valdez spill did in 1989.

Another partnership example was the firefighter training symposium we sponsored in May. This symposium trains land-based firefighters from coastal Alaska to deal with shipboard fires, as they would have to do if a vessel caught fire near one of their communities. As usual, we had many partners, but we were particularly gratified that ConocoPhillips made available its Polar Endeavour, allowing the firefighters to see for themselves what the new double-hull tankers entering service are like.

This was also the year when one issue emerged as perhaps the most important the council has faced since its birth: the future of the Prince William Sound tanker escort system.

That system, instituted after the Exxon Valdez spill, requires two powerful tugs to accompany each loaded oil tanker out of the Sound. The tugs can rescue a tanker if it runs into trouble, or begin the response if, despite all efforts, an oil spill occurs.

However, the oil industry and its government regulators are talking about reducing the requirement to a single tug. Under the Oil Pollution Act of 1990, escort requirements could even disappear altogether when the tanker fleet serving the Valdez oil terminal has switched entirely to double-hull vessels. As the Observer went to press, the council was still formulating its strategy for ensuring that the escort system not be changed in any way that would increase oil-spill risk.

The oil industry is pressing for cost reductions in other areas, as well. One example is Alyeska’s proposal for major changes at the Valdez tanker terminal. The council has commented extensively on this proposal, and continues to monitor Alyeska’s plans.

Even as we address the technical aspects of such issues, we are also tackling the common thread that increasingly runs through them: the oil industry’s claim that cutbacks are necessary for financial reasons. For the first time in our history, the council in autumn 2004 commissioned a study of oil-industry profits in Alaska, as detailed elsewhere in the Observer.

That study, by Fairbanks economic consultant Dr. Richard Fineberg, shows that the industry – unsurprisingly – makes enormous profits at oil prices around the $50-a-barrel level seen recently. But it also produced the more surprising finding that the industry makes a healthy return in Alaska even at prices as low as $13 a barrel. So, at any imaginable price level, oil companies can afford to protect our environment, and Alaskans needn’t worry the cost will drive the industry out of the state.

However, the council’s right to conduct such studies is under attack from Alyeska. Even before the Fineberg report was finished, the company served notice it considers profitability analysis outside the scope of its contract with us, and demanded that we not use Alyeska contract funds to pay Dr. Fineberg. Because we believe this type of information to be essential in dealing with the financial arguments being made more and more frequently by Alyeska and other players in the oil industry, we went to court in May to establish our right to conduct such studies.

Although we sometimes find ourselves at odds with the industry, we know they share our desire to make sure nothing like the Exxon Valdez spill befalls Alaska again. So we are always eager to give credit where credit is due and to spotlight noteworthy accomplishments. Such was the case when we recommended that the major Valdez oil shippers – ConocoPhillips’ Polar Tankers unit, ExxonMobil’s SeaRiver Maritime, and Alaska Tanker Co., which hauls oil for BP – receive a 2004 Legacy Award for spilling no oil in the Sound the previous calendar year. The award is given annually by the Pacific States/British Columbia Oil Spill Task Force for commendable work in the areas of oil spill prevention, preparedness, or response.

As noted above, the next few years promise to confront the council with some very high-stakes issues, the two most noteworthy being the prospect of reductions to the tug fleet, and Alyeska’s proposed changes to the tanker terminal in Valdez.

Through it all, the council will bear in mind its central mission: working with industry and regulators to make sure the oil transportation system in Prince William Sound is as safe as can be, so that future Alaskans can enjoy the state’s natural wonders as much as we do today.

• John Devens is executive director of the Prince William Sound Regional Citizens’ Advisory Council.