Enviromental Costs of Developing New Oil and Gas

What does ‘Assess’ mean?

To consider several options or arguments and weigh them up to come to a conclusion about their effectiveness or validity.

Assess the environmental costs of developing new oil and gas resources. (8-mark question)

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•Be specific – use named case studies and places

•Only explain the environmental impacts and make sure you consider both positive and negative impacts

•As the question says ‘assess’ you need to add an overall point to say whether costs or benefits are greater and why

•Link answer back to the question

The east Siberian-Pacific Ocean oil pipeline (ESPO) will be another oil transporting system to transport oil from Siberia to the pacific coast. This will have some environmental impacts if there was to be a leak and will damage any habitats. This will produce pollution which will have an environmental impact on soil, lakes and groundwater from oil spills. However, huge reserves of oil and gas can provide Russia with the opportunities for an economic advance. Permafrost can also be an issue because it can damage the pumping of oil, causing it to subsidence.

The Keystone XL pipeline also has environmental costs because it can spoil the landscape and can produce possible leaks and can destroy the landscape even more. However, more safety measures are being put in place to try to prevent those issues. Also, the fate of the pipeline is therefore held up as symbolic of America’s future. The environmental costs of the pipeline can have costs of developing new oil and gas resources because of the past ways to transport the oil and gas.

Overall, I believe there are more environmental costs than benefits. I believe this because many oil leakages in the past have made a big impact on the environment.