Talk:Oil spill governance in the United States

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Introduction

The U.S. is an active player in the oil industries. US oil requirements exceed its production rate hence it imports oil from other countries. Oil companies in the US engage in oil exploration both offshore and onshore. A natural consequence of these activities is oil spillage which results in the release of crude oil into the environment from wells, drilling rigs, offshore platforms and oil carrying vessels (e.g. Tankers).

During the past three decades, oil consumption and importation in the U.S has been on a steady rising trend while the number of oil spill incidents and volume of oil spilled have been on the decline. The April 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill has been the only anomaly in the declining trend. The declining trend can be attributed to changes in oil spill legislation after the occurrence of the Exxon Valdez oil spill which highlighted weak governance in the area of oil spills in the U.S. The subsequent comprehensive reform of oil spill legislation by congress in response to the Exxon Valdez spill produced the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 which has significantly improved governance in this area.

A number of federal authorities are responsible for governing oil spills in the United States. These main actors in the governing system are a combination of state, federal and international authorities. They are collectively responsible for creating and implementing legislation to prevent oil spills and handling the aftermath decisions and procedures that follow.

-- Jytdog (talk) 19:25, 24 June 2016 (UTC)