n'est pas

This morning I saw the episode of "Saved By the Bell" where an oil company (from Texas, I'm assuming, judging by the lariat that the oil baron was wearing) tried to drill for oil on the Bayside campus. All this oil would have provided ths school with enough cash to build, among other things, both a men's and women's basketball court. Unfortunately the drillers must have been a bunch of blind monkeys because they had a major spill every other day. Because the class was doing a segment on Ecology all the main characters became upset because their new found wildlife friends (a salamander and a duck named Becky) were killed in Bayside oil disaster #2445.

This episode left me wondering:
Do they still have as many oil spills as they had in the early 90's? Are they just not getting as much hype? Is caring about the economy just not hip anymore? Is it all about SARS now? And what the hell is all this hoopla about oil in the Middle East if there's a plethora of black gold hidden underneath high school campuses in southern California?