If you are a citizen who is concerned about the environment, you might feel helpless whenever an oil spill occurs. You might not live close enough to easily volunteer to help clean up the spill and you might feel like the money you are donating is not good enough. Here are some other actions that you can take in your everyday life to help prevent oil spills.

1. Reduce Your Reliance on Oil

Your first step is to try to reduce your reliance on oil and other fossil fuels. If you reduce your reliance on these products, you will be slightly reducing the amount of fossil fuels that need to be transported from the oil wells to a gas station near you. If you can convince other people to do the same, the amount of oil that is going to have to be shipped will be further reduced over time. This will reduce the chances for a spill to happen and hopefully minimize the spill if it should occur. Even just reducing your oil consumption a little bit can help cut down the transportation steps between the oil companies and yourself, leaving less room for errors that could cause spills.

2. Write To Your Government Representative

Your next step is to research what laws are in the works that would reduce the number of steps that oil companies need to go through in order to get their oil to the consumer, allowing the overall risk of an oil spill being reduced. Also check to see what laws are being developed that would penalize oil companies for their spills. Write to your government representative and urge him or her to support these possible laws. You need to make sure that there are as many effective laws in place as possible in order to further minimize the risk of an oil spill.

3. Petition to Stop Offshore Drilling

Finally, start a petition or support other groups that are trying to stop offshore drilling. Offshore drilling can cause problems because it is particularly easy for something to go wrong and for a spill to occur. Even though it is not guaranteed to occur, throwing your support behind groups that are trying to end offshore drilling can help companies participating in offshore drilling increase their safety standards to help prevent future spills.

For more information, talk to a company that specializes in helping companies clean up any oil spills that might occur, like Highmark Enviromental Services or another location. They will have more information about steps that you can take that are unique to your individual locality.