Could it happen here? The environmental disaster that followed the blow-out of the Deepwater Horizon rig in the Gulf of Mexico has shown that deep-water drilling is indeed a hazardous activity... Like the big banks, big oil needs to be restrained.” (The Independent, Viewspaper June 10, 2010). Unfortunately for Shell, and perhaps ironically for Exxon, BP never did move “Beyond Petroleum”. Because BP is an oil firm, its massive Gulf of Mexico oil spill has significant consequences for Shell, Exxon, and other oil firms. The tar ball spreading across the Gulf is also spreading across the oil industry, gumming up oil firms’ reputations and darkening their collective futures. Granted, since the demand for oil is relatively inelastic, protests against BP can mean new customers for Shell, Exxon, and others. But there remains the problem that BP’s inability to manage disaster in a deepwater well has unravelled trust in the technology and managerial competence of oil drilling in general. As a result, the costs and burdens of regulatory oversight in the oil industry will significantly increase and the ability to explore and drill in new locations will significantly decrease. It also seems likely that previously waning calls for alternative energy exploration will again gain momentum, perhaps finally providing enough of a push to move more countries beyond petroleum, and thus bringing about a major decline and even an end to the oil industry as we have known it.
