The toll on the Gulf coast’s energy infrastructure from the 2005 hurricane season was staggering.  The most up-to-date totals for oil spilled tops 11 million gallons, more than Exxon’s estimate of the Valdez release (10.8 million gallons).  Over 150 platforms were destroyed, damaged, or moved hundreds of miles.  Four-hundred fifty-seven pipelines, some that were originally built in wetlands or on the coast, were damaged from exposure to open-ocean conditions — for which they were not designed— due to coastal erosion.  Shell’s Mars platform, their crown jewel rig, was down for over eight months, representing the largest single source of natural gas in the Gulf.  Murphy Oil added to St. Bernard Parish’s devastation by spilling over 1 million gallons of oil into the community.  BP just admitted that one of their Gulf wells continues to leak, calling into question whether their operations in the Gulf are as negligent as those in Prudhoe Bay, AK.  In total, the hurricanes of 2005 cut the nation’s refining capacity by 29%, and necessitated over $30 billion in repairs to the oil and gas infrastructure of the Gulf. 

Despite this destruction and the fact that increased hurricane activity and the effects of global warming put the oil and gas infrastructure at increased risk of future damage, there continues to be no rules ensuring that platforms built off-shore can withstand category 4 and 5 storms, and the industry has shown no interest in moving on-shore infrastructure such as refineries and tank farms out of high-risk coastal areas.