Transforming Oil Activism: From Legal Constraints to Evidenciary Opportunity

• Published date: 29 October 2012
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/S1521-6136(2012)0000017009
• Pages: 113-131
• Date: 29 October 2012
• Author: Sabrina McCormick

TRANSFORMING OIL ACTIVISM:

FROM LEGAL CONSTRAINTS TO

EVIDENCIARY OPPORTUNITY

Sabrina McCormick

ABSTRACT

Purpose This research explores how social movement activists work

to influence the framing of oil spill impacts, and related scientific and

political processes. It focuses on the Louisiana Bucket Brigade (LABB),

an environmental justice organization that has worked in the Gulf

Coast, and looks particularly at the experience of the 2010 Deepwater

Horizon Oil Spill.

Design/methodology Research is based on qualitative interviews,

ethnographic observations, and video data with local social movement

organizations, grassroots groups, spill workers, fishermen, local resi-

dents, scientists, and government representatives during three time peri-

ods, in 2010 within five months of the spill, Fall of 2011, and Summer

of 2012.

Findings Legal institutional constrictions inherent in official oil spill

assessments and cleanup processes fostered a transformation in activist

tactics and the communities they seek to represent.

Disasters, Hazards and Law

Sociology of Crime, Law and Deviance, Volume 17, 113131

Copyright r2012 by Emerald Group Publishing Limited

All rights of reproduction in any form reserved

ISSN: 1521-6136/doi:10.1108/S1521-6136(2012)0000017009

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Originality/value of the paper Social movement activism has not

often been studied in response to an oil spill. This chapter demonstrates

how such an event shapes activism, and how activism has an effect on

local responses to the event.

INTRODUCTION

On April 20, 2010, the largest single oil spill in the history of the United

States occurred at the Macondo Facility in the Gulf of Mexico. Almost 5

million barrels of oil were released before the rig was capped (Hoch, 2010).

Areas in the Gulf were closed to fishing, and British Petroleum (BP), the

primary operator of the Facility, hired thousands of out of work fishermen

to help in cleanup efforts. Over 2.1 million gallons of Corexit, a chemical

dispersant, were applied despite the request by the Environmental Protec-

tion Agency (EPA) to BP, who was in control of spill cleanup, to use a less

toxic alternative (Kujawinski et al., 2011). After Corexit was sprayed,

cleanup workers used their own boats as well as BP boats to skim oil from

the water’s surface. Much of the oil was dispersed throughout the Gulf,

washing up on shores across a wide range of states.

While the initial impacts of the spill were unclear, later assessments

showed that fish and wildlife populations experienced massive effects of

both the oil and the dispersant. Birds, dolphins, and fish deaths have been

connected to spill chemicals across the Gulf region. Fish populations

and other species instrumental to the livelihoods of Gulf residents have

experienced negative transgenerational consequences. Spill effects on

human health became an immediate question. Government representatives,

BP officials, local communities, and oil spill workers quickly began to

debate how to conduct real-time monitoring of exposures and their observ-

able impacts. Various organizations immediately began to attempt an

assessment of oil-related risks to their constituents. Community-based

organizations began cleanup and recovery efforts. Social movement orga-

nizations began to make claims about problematic reporting of spill sever-

ity, the ineffective responses of cleanup efforts, and the need for improved

regulations. These organizations have continued to press for various

outcomes since the spill occurred.

Although the impacts of oil spills have long been studied in several

fields, little attention has been devoted to the ways in which local activists

respond to these events and how social movements function within the

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