Can't afford another spill

As we approach the 24^th anniversary of the Exxon Valdez oil spill, we must ask ourselves: have we done enough to protect our oceans and beaches from this filthy substance?

According to Art Sterritt, Executive Director of the Coastal First Nations, we haven’t. He summarized the CFN’s position on oil tanker traffic along the coast and the potentially disastrous effect a spill would have on the region’s ecosystem and communities: “If you transpose the geographic area affected by the Valdez spill onto the area tankers would travel down the west coast, a spill could theoretically stretch from Prince Rupert (Canada) to Vancouver (Roughly 1,500 kilometers).”

The Exxon Valdez spill occurred on March 24, 1989. Up to 750,000 barrels of crude oil poured into the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Alaska, the remote location of which made response efforts that much more difficult. Roughly 11 million gallons of oil went on to cover 2,100 km of coastline, and 28,000 square km of ocean.

This had been the largest ecological disaster in American waters, until the 2010 Deepwater Horizon incident. Following an explosion in the Gulf of Mexico, an opening in the sea-floor gushed oil unabated for three whole months! That pumped an estimated 4.9 million barrels of crude oil into the gulf, poisoning hundreds of thousands of marine and coastal wildlife.

But what if these risky long-distance tanker runs and off-shore oil rigs were no longer necessary? We could save millions of dollars in disaster relief. We could save millions of lives. If only energy production was made accessible to the public, freeing them from the big oil companies who’d have no choice but to cut-back on operational costs, including transportation.

That’s part of the reason why NRGLab created the SH-box. Semi-conductive, thermo-generating technology is contained within a small case producing electricity for $0.03 per kW, which is four times less expensive than current rates. Better yet, the battery has a shelf-life of 20 years! That means the SH-box is there and ready whenever you need it.

The box itself is comprised of relatively inexpensive materials, like rare-earth elements and metal oxides, making the box affordable to a wide demographic. By introducing it to market, NRGLab hopes the SH-box will lay a devastating blow to big oil. How many spills is it going to take? How many millions of gallons of water and miles of coastline must mankind destroy before we say, “Enough is enough,” and do away with these bulky, ticking-time bombs they call oil tankers and rigs?

Out with the old, and cumbersome. In with the new, and all-natural. In with the SH-box.