Nearly everyone with a television instantly became fixated to the BP oil spill coverage last April, when an explosion caused a deep ocean wellhead to gush freely for three whole months. Not as many people were familiar with the fact that just before this took place, the Obama Administration had just proposed a plan that would end a moratorium on drilling on the eastern seaboard, allow further drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, and begin exploration for oil discovery in Alaska. Of course, once the spill occurred, a moratorium was placed on drilling in the gulf, as oil quickly became very unpopular in the public eye.
Four months later, on the first day of December, Obama announced a new plan. This new plan is more consistent with what democratic voters thought they would be getting from President Obama, and also reflects the need for regulatory overhaul. As Interior Secretary Ken Salazar notes: "As a result of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, we learned a number of lessons... most importantly that we need to proceed with caution and focus on creating a more stringent regulatory regime." The first step in regulatory reform on offshore drilling was to disband the Minerals Management Service, due to its lax behavior in overseeing offshore drilling issues.
While more stringent regulations are expected to be placed on the oil industry in terms of safety regulations and environmental impact studies, this decision isn't exactly a win for either Democrats, or Republicans. Under the new plan, the only areas now off limit to new expansion are along the East Coast and the eastern Gulf of Mexico. The new plan will do nothing to change the future drilling in the Arctic of Alaska. Democrats will be upset that future drilling in Alaska still looms large, while Republicans will take advantage of Obama's wavering on the issue and remain skeptical that future leases will be honored.
Of course this is all lost in the headlines, but President Obama has stated multiple times that future domestic drilling is not aimed to accommodate greater usage, but to diminish the need for foreign oil. It is a step necessary to reach future clean energy goals that Democrats don't understand, and Republicans see straight through. Short term domestic drilling is sadly necessary to revitalize the economy in order to create a clean energy industry for the long term. Hardly necessary to say, this climate bill is still in its early stages, and won't make much progress under such divided government. But sooner or later the majority of Americans need to realize that things like this do not happen overnight. Especially when it has been us who have been causing this issue for over 100 years now.
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ReplyDeleteI always assumed that domestic drilling would facilitate greater usage, but you make a very compelling point. I don't know a lot about oil and prices, but I always thought domestic drilling would reduce the price of oil because it doesn't have to be shipped. Is this true? Wouldn't people be more likely to consume oil if it was made cheaper? I'm proud of the administration for limiting expansion on the East Coast and Gulf of Mexico, but the exclusion of Alaska's future in the domestic oil industry is troubling. I'm just not sure that when we finally DO reach clean energy goals, the loss of Alaska's wilderness justifies the short lived economic stimulation. I guess what it all comes down to is the necessity to reduce reliance on oil completely, which is probably impractical right now. But I'd like to believe there are other ways to stimulate the economy enough to fund and support future clean energy industries rather than using oil as a stepping stone.
ReplyDeleteI disagree that expanding domestic drilling is a way to facilitate reaching clean energy goals. Expanding the use of fossil fuels is in no way related to "clean" energy. The recent BP oil spill should be a sign that drilling is not the way to solve our problems. Only by putting more funding towards renewable energy sources will we reach our goals. Fossil fuels account for about 85% of all energy in the United States. Renewable energy accounts for less than 8% of all energy in the U.S. The only way to produce more clean energy is to actually invest money in that market.
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