Offshore Drilling
425 words.
Recently I’ve been hearing a lot of people complaining about China drilling off our coast, as if we’re the only country entitled to drill for oil in the world. For example, see this rant on United Conservatives of Virginia: ChiComs Drilling Off the Coast of Fla. (This is clearly not a person who embraces change - we haven’t used the abbreviation “Fla” since, what, the 60s?)
Meanwhile, China and India are 50 miles off the coast of Florida, drilling in Castro’s fields, using technology which could allow them to drill laterally and tap OUR reserves, and there ain’t a freaking thing we’re doing about it. What is wrong with these people? Have they lost their minds? Did they have a mind to begin with?
What does he think we should do, go to war with Cuba and China?
Call your representatives and … tell them if they really want to help, move some battle cruisers down to the Straits of Florida and monitor the ChiCom operations 50 miles off our coast. One drop of oil spilled and the operation is toast. (emphasis mine)
Oops, I guess he does think we should go to war with Cuba and China. Well that makes sense. Mobilizing another war machine will certainly do a lot to conserve our oil resources and bring down the price of gas, ‘cause, you know, it doesn’t take any oil to run a battle cruiser or anything.
Ahem. Anyway, my take on more drilling is that it would just be a band-aid fix that merely postpones the inevitable. (The inevitable being that we’ll need to develop some kind of energy technology to displace oil.) It’s not that I think the world is going to run out of oil, it’s that Americans can’t tolerate the higher cost of gas that occurs when other countries are seriously competing for it. (Which is rather whiney considering that America is the richest country on earth.) Also, the idea that giving the go-ahead to drill holes all over the continental shelf will help anyone’s gas bill before, during, or after the elections is ridiculous. It takes a little bit of time to build the oil rigs. Also, as far as I can tell, gas prices are largely driven by fear and speculation, not offshore drilling platforms.
In short, I haven’t seen any compelling arguments to start more offshore drilling. An extra buck or two a gallon for gas isn’t that big of a deal to me. I’d much rather the country invest in nuclear power and/or alternate fuel sources.
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