Opinion: BP Oil Spill Is a Turning Point for America

(May 5) -- As the oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico spreads to nearly 4,000 square miles, we must see this tragedy as a tipping point to push our country toward clean energy.

Not only should the president reinstate a federal moratorium on new offshore drilling, but this BP disaster should also be seen as a game-changer. We must prevent future disasters through aggressive plans to wean us from dirty oil over the next two decades.

This is a turning point for America. The dirty oil and coal industries have had a stranglehold on our economy, our health and our environment for too long. Better safety measures and better federal regulations may have prevented this disaster. But better regulations are not a fail-safe way to prevent another, bigger oil spill. They are not an answer to the lopsided relationship between the oil industry and regular, hardworking Americans.

BP and other oil companies have been raking in billions of dollars in profits and standing in the way of clean energy initiatives that would create thousands of good, green jobs for Americans. Now we are all left to deal with the consequences of the oil industry's carelessness.

It's unfortunate that this tragedy echoes some of the excuses from Goldman Sachs and Wall Street. While we heard some financial firms say they were too big to fail, BP is now basically saying, "We couldn't have anticipated that drilling our ocean would lead to an oil spill."

Indeed, like Goldman Sachs, BP is also making profits that are off the charts: Its first-quarter 2010 earnings rose 135 percent to some $6.5 billion.

The oil industry uses our oceans to ratchet up its profits, and then it leaves us to clean up the mess. It leaves us to comb the beaches looking for oil-slicked birds. It leaves us to worry about the small fisheries and coastal businesses that are now shut down. It leaves us to worry about what the industry's oil and toxic chemicals will do to our drinking water and health.

As the oil disaster shuts down fisheries and tourism along the Gulf Coast and wildlife, including seabirds and sea turtles, begins to wash ashore covered in oil, BP has denied responsibility for the spill, but conceded to covering costs of cleanup. Sierra Club is calling on the oil giant to compensate coastal communities for the countless jobs and billions of losses in tourism and fishing profits, as well as efforts to recover marine life and wetlands, which will likely continue for decades to come.

BP is responsible for this disaster. BP, not the American people, should pay for the disaster. BP's greed and recklessness have destroyed vital fishing and tourism industries in the Gulf Coast, just as Wall Street's greed and recklessness knocked down America's economy.

Sadly, we are witnessing one of the worst environmental disasters in American history. We commend the thousands of Americans who are working so hard to respond to the disaster. But we know that despite our best efforts, we will be dealing with the impacts of BP's drilling rig for decades to come.

We are already watching wildlife like sea turtles and birds washing up on beaches, and we can expect things to get much worse. Recovery and rescue of marine life and habitat will likely take decades.

We are tired of the oil industry polluting our air and water and standing in the way of clean energy. Enough is enough. Offshore drilling is off the table. We can do better than fossil fuels. We can power the U.S. with clean energy like solar and wind power, not to mention the immense savings in dollars and oil we can achieve by improving energy efficiency.

We want clean energy, now.

Michael Brune, the executive director of the Sierra Club, the nation's oldest, largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, is the author of "Coming Clean: Breaking America's Addiction to Oil and Coal."