Petroleum, Refineries, and the Future

Relocation of Oil Refineries

Charles Perrow makes it very clear in his article that relocation of businesses, such as oil refineries, away from populated, and disaster-riddled areas will help diffuse a problem before it starts. When looking at the big picture, Perrow is right; placing a majority of oil refineries along the entire south coast of the United States was not the best idea. This is especially evident when hurricanes strike areas that have a high concentration of refineries nearby. When refineries on the gulf coast are shut down the effects can be felt all across the United States. As Odum states,

The U.S. Gulf Coast, with its heavy concentration of refining capacity, supplies fuel not only within its region, but all along the U.S. East Coast and even into the Midwest. Numerous product terminals in New York Harbor rely on receipt of product largely via pipeline from the Gulf Coast [...]  The impact of storm damage [...] was exhibited during hurricanes in 2005 and 2008.  In those situations, storm damage on the Gulf Coast disrupted local fuel supply to the East Coast (Odum 27).

This makes relocation a much more viable for helping provide a much safer environment to produce oil. This not only providing a safer environment for the oil companies to work their refineries continuously, but also helps dissuade damage from disasters spreading the oil and chemicals to the environment in highly populated areas.

Works Cited: 
Odum, Marvin et al. Enhancing Emergency Preparedness for Natural Disasters.
       National Petroleum Council, 2014.
       http://www.npc.org/reports/2014-Emergency_Preparedness-lr.pdf
Perrow, Charles. "Disasters Evermore? Reducing Our Vulnerabilities to Natural, Industrial, and
       Terrorist Disasters." Social Research, vol. 75, no. 3, Fall 2008, pp. 733-752. 
​       Academic Search Premier. Web. 12 Nov. 2017. 

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