–Dr. Gunter Pauli, PhD, MBA, is an entrepreneur and founder of the ZERI Foundation (Zero Emissions Research and Initiatives). He is the author of 17 books and 36 children’s fables. His latest book The Blue Economy contains one innovation outlined in this article. —

One wonders if the oil industry will ever learn.

When in the summer of 2006 holes in pipelines forced British Petroleum to shut down a major part of its network in Alaska, oil prices shot up to record levels.

The analysis of the problem unveiled that microbial induced corrosion (MIC) contributed to a dramatic domino effect.

Microbes are known to cause corrosion. Concentrated and purified metals are easy energy sources for bacteria, which consider this as their equivalent of fast food. After the insurance paid most of the environmental clean-up costs, and consumers footed the bill for a huge premium on the market, the industry reverted to improve a model that has proven to fail.

Why does a $1 billion clean-up bill not force the oil sector to embrace a portfolio of fundamental shifts in thinking and doing? It seems an obvious opportunity to launch an aggressive search for an out-of-the-box solution and dedicate the relevant budgets that build on new modus operandi, already well founded in science.