they tell themselves the story they were scared straight by the exxon valdez, reform themselves and a lot of who they are, trace the reforms that started with that accident so the horizon, deepwater horizon accent -- accident could be a book ends. i was wrestling how to make the book more specific, i considered a dual narrative of exxon mobil and bp. my regret was deepwater horizon, maybe i shouldn't of done that but looking back on it it would be too much recording, never would have gotten under the surface. >> host: starting the book with exxon valdez and making it new made it new. and ending with the deepwater horizon disaster on the gulf of mexico in april 2010. as a person that delved into the but as you a lot of transcripts from the exxon valdez incident did you see any parallels? i did a little bit. i did cover deepwater horizon and your description and exxon's response to what i did see -- seemed like bp took a page out of their playbook. did you see that at all as you were seeing coverage of bp? >> there were definitely parallels. could list more than what comes to my mind. i

look back to 1989, the tanker exxon valdez aground in alaska.f thousands of barrels of crude oil. polluting 1,300 miles of coastline. some of the oil still endures and some animal species have yet to recover. northern waters are so cold, it takes bacteria much longer to break up oil products than it would in warmer waters. and drilling conditions are among the most challenging on earth. as shell discovered in 2014, its drilling rig, the kulluk, also aground in the arctic‘s tempestuous seas. the firm later halted its arctic exploration programme. this is a win for common—sense. the oil companies wanted to go further north as the ice cap melts, to drill for more oil. and this is a serious move against them, it's a win for communities on the coasts who would have been devastated if there'd been an oil spill. and a win for the climate because we cannot afford to burn that oil. oil keeps the world moving, and the industry says we need more of it. but its co2 emissions heat the climate. scientists say we have already found three times more fossil fuel

as a person that really delved into -- read a lot of the transcriptions from the exxon valdez incident. i did you see any parallels? i didn't cover valdez. i was young then. i did cover deep water horizon, and you're description of valdez and exxon's response to it i saw -- almost seemed like bt took a page out of their play book. did you see that as you were seeing the coverage of bt? >> guest: definitely. definitely parallels. you could probably list even more than come to my behind but a few are that in the decade running up to valdez there are warning signs that exxon was not operating in a consistent manner in a way that would give you the highest possible reassurance that such a catastrophic accident could not take place. in enact in the decade before the valdez exxon caught 80,000 out of 180,000 employees. they re-organized their entire safety department, entire environmental depth, and at the fact that a tanker captain with a drinking problem, who had dui arrests was still in his job, making more than $100,000 a year in $1,989, that's not the exxonmobil you expect today. so the

these areas have always been of particular concern because of disasters such as the exxon valdez oil a shell drilling rig ran aground in the arctic, that highlighted that this is a high risk environment. although there was no spill in that case. this is the reaction of the american petroleum institute which lobbies for the oil and gas industries. that is a reference to donald trump. this is pretty late in the day for president obama to be issuing bands like this. —— bans. here's matt mcgrath on why that might be. it's more about the future, there are projects in the arctic which will continue but no company is drilling there. they have leases, sheu drilling there. they have leases, shell has one existing lease but they tried a couple of years ago. it's all about the future. at this moment, nobody thinks those companies will go there, which is why he is putting emphasis on this one, permanent. whether it is published remains to be seen. tell us published remains to be seen. tell us about the practicalities of this environment. it has got to be high—risk and if something happens it is

look at the pictures of the exxon valdez which polluted thousands of miles of coastline.e yet to recover. northern waters are so are yet to recover. northern waters are so cold it takes bacteria much longer to break up oil products than it does in warmer waters. drilling conditions are among the most challenging on earth. as shell discovered in 2014, it‘s drilling caused problems in the tempestuous seas. the firm later halted its programme. this is a win for common sense. this is a win for the communities on the coasts who would have been devastated if there had been an oil spill and it is a win for the climate, because we cannot afford to burn that oil. oil keeps the world moving and the industry says we need more of it but it is —— it‘s says we need more of it but it is —— it's c02 says we need more of it but it is —— it‘s co2 omissions hate the climb it. president obama‘s drilling ban is good news for environmental protection if it lasts. president—elect trump says he is not worried about climate change. he wa nts to worried about climate change. he wants to protect jo

look back to 1989, the tanker exxon valdez aground in alaska. still endures and some animal species have yet to recover. northern waters are so cold, it takes bacteria much longer to break up oil products than it would in warmer waters. and drilling conditions are among the most challenging on earth. as shell discovered in 2014, its drilling rig also aground in the arctic‘s tempestuous seas. the firm later halted its arctic exploration programme. this is a win—win for common—sense, it isa this is a win—win for common—sense, it is a serious move against the oil companies and a win for communities on the coasts who would have been devastated if they had been an oil spill. and a win for climate because we cannot afford to burn that oil. oil keeps the world moving, and the industry says we need more of it. but its co2 emissions heat the climate. scientists say we have already found three times more fossil fuels than we can burn without risking the planet. the arctic is already warming fast. scientists are very alarmed. president obama's drilling ban

the exxon valdez crisis. they had a lot of trouble early on that he helped clean up.e one of the better run companies you'd want to be in the fox hole with. >> he's a relative lifer. the check on his foreign exposure is it's only been places with minerals running under the ground or off their shores. but he hasn't dealt with countries where oil is not a presence and a principle concern. >> that's true. if you look at where oil is, it tends to be in trouble spots. you can argue that either way. has he done a lot of, you know, traditional diplomacy in continental europe? no. he has dealt with some of the world's most difficult autocrats? yes. >> he knows saudi arabia. he. doesn't know jordan. he knows venezuela, he doesn't know guatemala. he doesn't have the far reach of someone who travels for more security based purposes, like a rudy giuliani. >> right, that's true. i think the other thing that a rex tillerson appointment signals is that we're moving into an era where america is going to be more assertive. like it or not, this is a guy who's tough. he's very uncomprom

they have a role in climate change and certainly the exxon valdez, that will come back up in the confirmationearings. host: let's explain the role a little bit more. the secretary of state playing a key role in the exxon pipeline debate. explain how that worked, that was the epa, the white house and department of state. elana: and the caller might notice because he said he was canadian. when we have the pipeline going from canada or from mexico, a complicated process was set up under george w. bush that leaves the state department in charge, juggling the environmental considerations going into building a pipeline or transmission line that crosses borders. certainly, mr. trump wants to bring the keystone pipeline back and will be involved in other inastructure projects, butr. tillerson would more or less be in charge of that. host: justin trudeau said on wednesday last week that donald trump was "very supportive of the keys don't crude oil -- keystone crude oil pipeline in their first conversation after the election. he brought it up and is that he was supportive of it and the he said, i am --

they have a role in climate change and certainly the exxon valdez, that will come back up in the confirmationrings. host: let's explain the role a little bit more. the secretary of state playing a key role in the exxon pipeline debate. explain how that worked, that was the epa, the white house and department of state. elana: and the caller might notice because he said he was canadian. when we have the pipeline going from canada or from mexico, a complicated process was set up under george w. bush that leaves the state department in charge, juggling the environmental considerations going into building a pipeline or transmission line that crosses borders. certainly, mr. trump wants to bring the keystone pipeline back and will be involved in other infrastructure projects, but mr. tillerson would more or less be in charge of that. host: justin trudeau said on wednesday last week that donald trump was "very supportive of the keys don't crude oil -- keystone crude oil pipeline in their first conversation after the election. he brought it up and is that he was supportive of it and the he said, i am