As someone who generally follows politics but isn't strict about the nitty- gritty details, I just assumed that since President Obama was a Democrat, he wasn't for offshore drilling. (Yes, sometimes I'm one of those voters—sue me.) So when I heard he just made a proposal to open vast areas of American coastlines to oil and natural gas drilling, it caught me off-guard.
Apparently, he has always been for offshore drilling, especially during the last election—which I'm sure was a strategy to pull in some people from the right.
He is proposing to allow areas to be drilled along the Atlantic coastline, the eastern Gulf of Mexico, and the north coast of Alaska. Only the coastline from New Jersey northward and the Pacific Coast would remain off limits.
Obama said to his critics, "This announcement is part of a greater strategy that will move us from an economy that runs on fossil fuels and foreign oil to one that relies more on homegrown fuels and clean energy."
Maybe it's just because I don't understand oil exploration, but no matter how much research I do, I just can't find out how drilling for more oil is going to make us more reliant on clean energy. It's like handing crack to crack addicts and telling them that smoking more of it will curb their dependency on it.
The worst part is, offshore drilling will not in any way actually create energy independence. The U.S. goes through 20.7 million barrels of oil a day. We only produce 8.3 million barrels a day, and of that, we actually export 2 million. Even with new drilling, the U.S. would need to import 40 percent of its daily oil consumption.
A Congressional report from 2003 found that increasing offshore productions would not reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil. When we're talking about "foreign oil," by the way, most people assume it typically comes from places like the Middle East. In fact, Canada and Mexico are two of our largest oil suppliers.
Interestingly, the proposal to reconsider offshore drilling originally came from President George W. Bush, who first lifted the 18-year ban on offshore drilling for some areas. More recently, Mitch McConnell and John Boehner, leaders of the Republican party for the two houses of Congress, criticized Obama's plan for not allowing more space to actually be explored. In their eyes, if Obama is going to allow some areas to be drilled, they want all the coastlines of the U.S. to be open for drilling.
On the opposite side, officials from both political parties in Alabama and Florida have been openly critical due to their fear that coastlines, fisheries, popular beaches, and wildlife will be damaged. Florida makes an estimated $28 billion on its coastline alone.
Many people claim that advances in technology have made offshore drilling safer than ever—but tell that to the state of Louisiana, which submitted reports to the Department of Environmental Quality that stated that 10 of the largest refineries in Louisiana averaged 10 accidents a week from 2005 to 2008. These accidents have released over 15 million pounds and 21.9 million gallons of pollution into the air, ground, and water.
If we start drilling, Americans won't feel any relief at the pump until about 2030, and according to some government estimates, the oil in the newly opened areas will save consumers only pennies at the pump, if that.
I understand Obama is all for creating new jobs, and supposedly helping the environment, but offshore drilling is not the best idea to help either of those causes.
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