Drill Baby Drill?
As Louisiana companies ask a federal judge to lift the ban on deepwater drilling, the issue of whether to continue drilling in the Gulf following the BP Horizon disaster is a big topic of conversation. On Sunday the Clarion-Ledger ran competing opinion articles on whether offshore drilling should be banned.
Louis Miller of the Sierra Club advocated banning offshore drilling and instead developing alternative energy sources.
State Senator Merle Flowers disagreed, arguing that offshore drilling is needed for energy supplies and the jobs that it creates.
So who is right? They both are.
Senator Flowers is right that advocating a complete ban on offshore drilling is “naive.” Mr. Miller is right that we should develop renewable energy. But until we have developed enough renewable energy sources to replace oil, we don't have much option to offshore drilling. We may not like that fact, but it is a fact.
The United States is in desperate need of a comprehensive energy plan designed at sharply reducing or eliminating our dependence on oil. The era of cheap and easily accessible oil is ending. Major energy companies are not replacing their oil reserves through new discoveries as fast as they are being depleted. That is why we are having to drill in 5,000 feet of water in the Gulf and are looking at the Artic for possible future drilling. If Peak Oil is not already here, then it will be soon. We should plan for dwindling supplies now—not when there is a supply crunch that drives gas to $10 per gallon.
One idea is Boone Pickens' plan. The pillars of the plan are:
- Create millions of new jobs by building out the capacity to generate up to 22 percent of our electricity from wind. And adding to that with additional solar generation capacity;
- Building a 21st century backbone electrical transmission grid;
- Providing incentives for homeowners and the owners of commercial buildings to upgrade their insulation and other energy saving options; and
- Using America's natural gas to replace imported oil as a transportation fuel in addition to its other uses in power generation, chemicals, etc.
People may disagree with some of Pickens' ideas or have their own ideas. But it is better than what we have now: nothing. Congress needs to enact energy legislation now, since it will take years to implement. Failure to do so is a failure in leadership by the executive and legislative branches.
What about deepwater drilling? Should we ban that? Again, I say no. My reasoning is that it is now pretty clear that BP was grossly negligent in its operation of the Horizon. That suggests that deepwater drilling can be done safely. BP just wasn't doing it. But the government needs to make an example of BP and the Justice Department should criminally prosecute the people responsible for running that rig. Their actions caused the deaths of eleven people and an evironmental disaster.
We need oil like a heroin addict needs his next hit. We've got to have it. I'm all for working to end the addiction. But until we do, we have to have oil. And deepwater is one of the only places that we have to get it.
You need to see that special on HBO about natural gas
drilling in the Rockies. Apparently, they're creating havock on the envioronment, drinking water. Makes me want to give up Coors.