Electric Co-op Today

A co-op executive will help the state of Alabama decide what to do with billions of dollars in penalties stemming from a major oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Fireboat response crews battle the blazing remnants of the off shore oil rig, Deepwater Horizon on April 21, 2010. The explosion and fire released of millions of barrels of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico. (Photo By: Associated Press/US Coast Guard)

E.A “Bucky” Jakins, Jr., the CEO of Baldwin Electric Membership Corporation, is serving on the commission that will examine the effects of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

The Summerdale-based co-op serves nearly 50,000 consumer-members in two counties on Alabama’s Gulf Coast.

“We want to have a plan in place so that 10 years down the road, we’ll know exactly how recovery funds were used,” said Jakins, who attended the commission’s inaugural meeting Sept. 28. “This could well affect Alabama’s future for the next 20 years.”

Gov. Bob Riley created the Alabama Coastal Recovery Commission by executive order Sept. 27. More than 80 business, civic and community leaders will examine the toll taken on the state’s residents and economy as a result of the April 20 explosion and fire aboard the offshore drilling rig. The blast killed 11 workers and caused an undetermined amount of ecological damage.

“This is the third disaster to strike our coast in six years,” said Jakins, citing hurricanes Ivan and Katrina in 2004-2005. “My co-op’s consumer-members are suffering, so you can imagine the stress on people who worked through those tragedies and the current economic downturn. They’re now trying to survive this oil spill.”

While the spill was contained in mid-July, the leaking wellhead was not permanently sealed until Sept. 20. An estimated 4.9 million barrels of oil— or 206 million gallons— were released into the Gulf of Mexico.

BP was the majority owner of the well. It has already spent $9.5 billion in cleanup costs, and committed another $20 billion for a victims’ compensation fund. The company was leasing the rig that exploded and could face billions more in government fines and legal costs associated with hundreds of pending lawsuits.

“We must do everything we can to restore what’s been lost because of this disaster,” said Riley, who expects the commission’s report Dec. 15. “We have every reason to believe Alabama will suddenly have significant resources at its disposal, likely in the billions of dollars.”

Tags: Co-op News, Economic Development, Energy and Environment, Recovery