On Tuesday evening, I attended the Washington, D.C., premiere of the new documentary “Steel to Sanctuary: The Rigs to Reef Story” at the Andrew Mellon Auditorium. The event was organized by the Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation (CSF), a bipartisan organization that protects and enhances access and opportunities for anglers, hunters, and other outdoor recreationists.
The film, produced and sponsored by Arena Energy LLC, explores a federal program called Rigs-to-Reef (RTR). RTR takes decommissioned oil rigs, that already support marine life with structure, into sanctuaries. RTR’s work is well demonstrated in the Gulf of America and partially in coastal California.
Featured speakers at the premiere included House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Bruce Westerman (R-AR), Congressman Mike Ezell (R-MS), and Governor Jeff Landry (R-LA).
Governor Landry, an avid sportsman who frequently fishes in the Gulf of America, touted RTR as “an American issue” and “a conservation issue” at the event.
In 1979, Exxon initially experimented with RTR through a subsea structure. Afterwards, RTR took off following the enactment of the National Fishing Enhancement Act of 1984. Per the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE), a subsidiary of the Department of Interior (DOI) that oversees RTR, the NFEA “recognizes the social and economic values in developing artificial reefs, establishes national standards for artificial reef development, provides for creation of a National Artificial Reef Plan, and provides for establishment of a reef-permitting system.”
There are currently three methods for decommissioning oil rigs: the tow and place method, topple and place method, and partial removal method. The last method, partial removal, is described as the “most successful” method at “maintaining the already established marine habitat and organisms with the least disturbance.” During partial removal, the top portion of the oil rig is severed at a “permitted navigational depth” at 80 to 85 feet to allow for commercial barges and other vessels to pass through. Then the rig is “placed on the sea floor next to the base of the remaining structure.”
The documentary explained that artificial reefs created by the RTR program serve as a carbon sync and act as sanctuaries for marine life–including critically-endangered fish species. In fact, it’s been argued that decommissioned oil rigs are among the world’s best fish habitats. That’s why this underappreciated conservation program is very popular with conservationists, locals, the oil and gas industry, and commercial and recreational anglers. It’s a win-win for all stakeholders involved.
But bureaucracy and opposition from environmentalists, who often advocate full removal of decommissioned rigs, imperil the future of this wildly successful effort. Environmentalists, especially those in California, have cited factors like pollution, proliferation of invasive species, safety hazards, and liability as reasons to oppose the conversion of rigs to fish habitat.
This tension has played out in California, where rigs-to-reef efforts have partially succeeded. In 2010, then-California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed Assembly Bill (AB) 2503 - or California Marine Life Legacy Act - into law. AB 2503 allowed the conversion of decommissioned rigs into artificial reefs if they were found to be a "net benefit" on the local environment “compared to removal of the facility from the marine environment.” It also established the California Endowment for Marine Preservation.
Ahead of AB 2503 becoming law, some legacy environmentalist groups - including Audubon California, California League of Conservation Voters, the Monterey Bay Aquarium, Ocean Conservancy, Oceana, and The Nature Conservancy - supported AB 2503. But the Santa Barbara based Environmental Defense Center (EDC) claimed rigs-to-reef is “misguided” and “not supported by any scientific evidence.” California State University-Long Beach (CSULB) researchers, however, called efforts to wholly remove decommissioned rigs dangerous to conservation efforts. CSULB’s Dr. Chris Lowe, PhD., warned, “If you remove these oil platforms by blowing them up, you’re going to wipe out a huge part of the population of economically important fish.”
As of this writing, about 600 oil rigs in the Gulf of America have been fully converted into artificial reefs. Yet, only 1,100 of 7,000 original platforms remain. Sadly, only 20% of rigs currently slated to be taken out of production will be donated to the RTR program. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) claims DOI “only holds about $3.5 billion in bonds from companies to cover a potential cost of $40-$70 billion.”
Streamlining the decommissioning process, one frequently marked by a two- to four-year slog, could drastically improve RTR’s effectiveness and convert more rigs into suitable marine habitat. And at no loss to U.S. taxpayers.
The documentary alluded to three remedies to bolster and improve RTR: reforming the NFEA permitting process down from years to months, reefing in place, and allocating more funding for state conservation programs. The elected officials in attendance at Tuesday’s premiere, including Rep. Mike Ezell (R-MS), alluded to potential legislation during the 119th Congress to address the bureaucratic slog facing BSEE, Army Corps of Engineers, and Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) involved in the decommissioning process.
Townhall readers interested in watching the documentary can head to RigsToReef.com to learn more about this critically important conservation program.
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