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Managing the hazard of marine oil pollution in Alaska.

Article Excerpt
Introduction

This study examines the development of safeguards against marine oil pollution in Alaska since the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster, in which oil spilled from the tanker Exxon Valdez caused a large-scale environmental disaster in coastal Alaska. In the time since the Exxon Valdez disaster, a series of enduring institutional reforms have contributed to major enhancements in the safeguards against the continuing hazard of marine oil pollution in Alaska. This is the first study to comprehensively examine and compare the development of those institutional reforms and oil pollution safeguards in two regions of Alaska with marine oil transportation systems (the Prince William Sound region and the Cook Inlet region). The major oil production streams of Alaska are transported through Prince William Sound and Cook Inlet (Alaska Department of Natural Resources, 2006; Alaska Oil Spill Commission, 1990). This study finds that safeguards against marine oil pollution have been significantly enhanced in both Prince William Sound and Cook Inlet since the Exxon Valdez disaster. The development of these enhanced safeguards represents a major policy shift from the limited safeguards found in the marine oil trade of Alaska before the disaster (Birkland, 1997; Busenberg, 1999).

The findings of this study are consistent with the predictions of the punctuated equilibrium theory of policy change (Baumgartner & Jones, 1993). The punctuated equilibrium theory predicts that the policy process will contain both equilibrium periods (marked by incremental policy change) and critical periods (marked by major policy reforms). The theory also predicts that critical periods of reform can establish new institutional arrangements (such as new laws or new organizations) in a given policy domain. Furthermore, the theory predicts that the new institutional arrangements established in critical periods can endure as institutional legacies in subsequent equilibrium periods, with enduring policy consequences (Baumgartner & Jones, 1993). The Exxon, Valdez disaster triggered a critical period of reform that created a series of new institutional arrangements (including new laws and new organizations) affecting the marine oil trade of Alaska (Busenberg, 1999). This study finds that those new institutional arrangements have subsequently endured and have led to enduring policy consequences in the marine oil trades of Prince William Sound and Cook Inlet. However, this study also finds an uneven pattern of policy reform. While enhancements in oil pollution safeguards have occurred in both regions, more extensive saferguard enhancements have occurred in Prince William Sound than in Cook Inlet. This study therefore finds a pattern of enduring yet unequal policy reforms when comparing the development of marine oil pollution safeguards in these two regions of Alaska.

Research Methods

This study examined the development of institutional reforms and oil pollution safeguards in the marine oil trade of Alaska from 1989 through 2007. This study was conducted using case study research methods described by Yin (2003). Field research was conducted in Alaska by the author to gather relevant documents and to interview respondents involved in the management of the marine oil trade of Alaska. Interviews were conducted by the author with 76 respondents representing major organizations active in this policy domain (including government agencies, oil corporations, and nongovernmental organizations). Numerous reports generated by these organizations were gathered and analyzed in the course of this study. These reports provide a highly detailed documentation of events in this policy domain from 1989 through 2007. References to these reports are provided in this study to indicate the extensive document-based evidence that supports this study. Together, these data sources allow a detailed examination of the Exxon Valdez disaster; the institutional reforms enacted in response to this disaster, and the subsequent development of new oil pollution safeguards in the marine oil trade of Alaska.

The Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Disaster

Before the Exxon Valdez oil spill, the marine oil transportation system in Alaska employed only limited safeguards against the hazard of oil spills at sea. Oil tankers in Alaska were not required to possess double hulls (a design feature intended to reduce the risk of oil spills through the use of both an inner hull and an outer hull on a tanker). The tracking of oil tankers along the coast of Alaska was constrained by limited radar coverage and course errors by oil tankers might therefore go undetected in many areas of Alaska. Oil tankers in Alaska sailed largely without the protection of tug escort vessels (which could be used to correct course errors by the tankers, fight fires on the tankers, and respond to oil spills). Oil tankers in Alaska were vulnerable to severe weather conditions, hut gaps in the regional weather reporting network limited the availability of weather warnings for those tankers. The marine oil transportation system of Alaska did not have a comprehensive environmental monitoring and research program either to guide oil spill response efforts or to assess the environmental impacts of oil spills on the coast of Alaska. The oil spill response equipment available in this marine transportation system was insufficient to meet the demands of a major oil spill at sea. Finally, the capabilities of some system safeguards declined prior to the Exxon Valdez disaster. The power of the radar used for vessel tracking in Prince William Sound was reduced, the oil spill response team in the Sound was disbanded, and oil spill response equipment was not maintained in a state of readiness. In sum, the marine oil trade of Alaska possessed oil pollution safeguards with limited capabilities in the years preceding the Exxon Valdez disaster (Busenberg, 1999; Clarke, 1993; EVOSTC, 2004; PWS RCAC, 1993d, 1999c; PWS Science Center, 2004).

In March 1989, the oil tanker Exxon Valdez was grounded on a reef in Prince William Sound as a result of a navigational error by the crew. This navigational error was not detected by the vessel tracking system in the Sound, and there was no tug escort vessel in position to aid the Exxon Valdez in a course correction at the time of the navigational error (or to assist in immediate oil spill response). The response equipment then available in the Sound was not ready for swift deployment to contain the spill, and that equipment did not have the capacity to recover and store the volume of oil spilled. These system-wide failures led to an environmental catastrophe as the Exxon Valdez oil spill spread over more than 2,000 kilometers of Alaskan coastline, causing extensive wildlife casualties (Alaska Oil Spill Commission, 1990; Busenberg, 1999; Clarke, 1993; EVOSTC, 2004; NTSB, 1990; PWS RCAC, 1993d, 1999c).

The Exxon Valdez disaster acted as a focusing event, focusing public and political attention on the environmental hazards of the marine oil trade (Birkland, 1997). This heightened attention led to a critical period of reform that established new institutional arrangements affecting the marine oil trade of Alaska (Busenberg, 1999). These institutional reforms endured in the subsequent equilibrium period and progressively contributed to the development of new safeguards against oil pollution in the marine oil transportation system of Alaska. These institutional reforms are examined in the next section.

Institutional Reforms Following the Exxon Valdez Disaster

The Exxon Valdez disaster was followed by institutional reforms that fundamentally reshaped the environmental management of the marine oil transportation system in Alaska. These reforms included the enactment of the U.S. Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (Public Law 101-380, referred to here as OPA 90) and changes to Alaska state law found in Alaska Statute Title 46 (referred to here as AS 46). New requirements for marine...

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