Where Do the Spills Come From?

TW: Interesting numbers from Rapier. Hard to believe but Rapier tends to be pretty level-headed on energy matters (his specialty).

From Robert Rapiers blog:
"...Probably when we think of oil spills, the Exxon Valdez comes to mind very quickly. It's one of the big reasons many of us associate oil usage with pollution. Those images of oil covered birds tend to stick with us.

When I was reading Oil on the Brain...one of the surprising claims the author made was that drivers and boaters spill more oil every year than was spilled in the Exxon Valdez incident. Every year.

The story above breaks some of the relative numbers down. It says that the source of oil spilled in U.S. waters each year has been estimated as follows:

Petroleum exploration and extraction - 1% of the total
Spillage from ships - 3%
Land runoff (e.g., from vehicles, boats, and lawnmowers) - 31%
Natural seepage (e.g., the La Brea Tar Pits) - 61%
Personally, I think those numbers amount to a huge disconnect relative to the view most of us have on oil that ends up in our waterways. Of course that is not to downplay the impact of oil spills. The biggest issue with oil spills is that there is a large volume all at once. If you spill a few drops at the pump, you aren't going to produce birds covered with oil..."
http://i-r-squared.blogspot.com/