Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Three words defined a certain somebody’s campaign in 2008. They were chanted so often and became such a cultural touchstone that it is hard to look at that person without hearing them now. If you don’t believe me, just think about where those words take you. Close your eyes and say it with me, “Drill, baby, drill.”
Wait… Is that what I was going for? Right now, it seems so. What was recently one of Sarah Palin’s catchphrases seems to be regaining popularity on Capital Hill, though it doesn’t apply to ANWR this time. As a component of recent plans for energy policy, President Obama has begun to advocate an expansion of off-shore drilling in certain locations, mainly off of the east coast.
The idea behind expanding drilling is, as it has always been, to increase job opportunities and decrease dependence on foreign oil. The President reiterated these points when announcing the plan to increase oil exploration off of the coast. Obama said during a speech on energy security at Andrews Air Force Base that the country is “going to need to harness traditional sources of fuel” while developing newer energy sources.
Regardless, this is a move that would have been more expected during the Bush Administration, when environmental concerns tended to be treated as obstacles to corporate ventures and little else. The positive sides of the expansion of drilling are that it does not include exploration in ANWR or the west coast. Past concerns that were expressed in that part of the country were over the possibility of drilling as close as three miles to the coastline. The announcement that drilling would only be permitted at a minimum hundred miles from shore means less damage to coastal environments.
Not so concerned with that is House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH). Boehner is quoted criticizing Obama for “delaying American energy production off our shores.” It’s a bit odd that expanding offshore drilling is a delaying tactic, but some people are just never satisfied.
That said, drilling is drilling. It will be invasive wherever it happens, and will still carry risks of disrupting ocean ecosystems and spilling oil. One has to wonder when we will finally stop opening new sites, and really move forward on developing new fuel technologies.
Both support for and opposition to this most recent round of deregulations have been bipartisan, so we don’t have the excuse of saying “Wait until the Democrats get to whip out their plan” at the moment. I cringed during the last campaign cycle whenever “Drill, baby, drill” was pulled out as an answer to “Yes we can,” but I also had that reaction when the Democratic candidates mentioned clean coal (the mythology of which I don’t have room to write about today) as an alternative source of energy.
In the time we have spent waiting for advances on real alternative fuel sources, many environmentalists have grudgingly tolerated existing drilling operations. It just would be nice to have a respite from needing to worry about more drilling sites being opened.
— Cohen is a senior from Topeka in political science.
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Comments
Cohen: Drilling delays dealing with problem
"Environmentalists have grudgingly tolerated existing drilling operations"-
Actually, existing energy firms have tolerated environmentalists and their pipe dreams. The switch to alternative fuels is not going to come from public policy or greenpeace, it is going to come from reduced costs of technology and increasing returns to scale in those industries. The only way nuclear, wind power, or solar, are going to become remotely primary fuel sources is if the government spends Trillions of dollar subsidizing them, or if the cost of oil becomes high enough that they become a cheaper alternative.
Cohen: Drilling delays dealing with problem
Nuclear would be a cheaper alternative if it wasn't for Chernobyl and all of the NIMBY response that generated. Oh if we could turn back the clock! I really like the idea of nuclear energy. 1 gram of that stuff makes as much energy as a pile of coal, but you are left over with 1 gram of really really dangerous radioactive waste that causes cancer. I guess we could try burying it underground in concrete vaults. Wait they already tried that, in the middle of nowhere, and everyone got really angry about it.
I guess we could strap it to a rocket and send it to outer space?
Either way, wind and solar aren't going to make enough energy to power all of our electronic crap that we keep making. Want to see people driving electric cars? That electricity has to come from somewhere, and wind and solar aren't going to make enough to make it happen. Coal is on it's way out, since it's "so dirty" and dangerous to mine. Oil is in a similar predicament. That leaves nuclear. Sounds like our only option to make enough energy to replace coal and oil is to smash a bunch of atoms together....
Cohen: Drilling delays dealing with problem
Offshore drilling is actually beneficial for the environment when done responsibly. There is a huge area deep underwater in the Gulf of Mexico called the apoxic zone where there is not enough oxygen in the water to sustain life. Building an offshore oil rig in a place like this provides a foundation for animals such as corals and barnacles to provide a base ecosystem. Soon fish are attracted to the area and there is a great deal of life where once there was none. This is why the success of the fishing industry in many Gulf states is correlated with the amount of offshore drilling taking place.
Rigs that are built to modern American safety standards do not leak at a significant level and are capable of withstanding storms as strong as Hurricane Katrina without spilling oil. This is something that cannot be said for the ships that transport oil across oceans, which cause massive ecological disasters when become stranded and leak.
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