Offshore Oil: Does it really matter to us?
There are many who say that offshore oil drilling is overall
advantageous in many respects; however, I’d like to point out a few important,
if not dominating, factors that make as negative an impact as they come. The
one subject I would like to elaborate on here is something as simple as an
everyday strain that the drilling so neglects to pick up: prices.
People
who are passionate about what they do, depending on what it is that they do,
say that they’re only true desire is to help people: people as in everyday,
suburban civilians. A policeman’s concern is keeping those people safe; a
politician’s concern is himself, of all. But the people who come up with the
ideas such as cars—an easier method of transportation—electricity—for everyday
use—and et cetera, are looking to benefit the whole in convenient ways. It
seems as though the idea of offshore drilling is to do just that . . . but is
it really benefitting society?
The
U.S. Department of Energy issued a report on offshore drilling last year, which
found that “access to the Pacific, Atlantic, and eastern Gulf regions would not
have a significant impact on domestic crude oil and natural gas production or
prices before 2030. Leasing would begin no sooner than 2012, and production
would not be expected to start before 2017.” It concluded, “Because oil prices
are determined on the international market, however, any impact on average
wellhead prices is expected to be insignificant.” In the end, offshore drilling
does not lower gasoline prices. It washes in wealth for the big companies that
wouldn’t have originally been produced, but you or I wouldn’t see any
significant changes. Why is that? The wealth is transferred to the oil
companies, with which the assets are held; that’s beneficial to points that
don’t have anything to do with American consumers. It is not beneficial in the
way we would want it to be. According to an article written by Andrew J.
Hoffman and Thomas P. Lyon, “At heart, this is an issue that pits environmental
protection against financial gain. . . .” and this isn’t a new problem! Even if
it did affect prices at the pump, we have already have some major accidents:
accidents that cost a lot in terms of offshore oil spills. At one point,
Hoffman and Lyon also point out, “. . . over 400,000 gallons of oil were
spilled in the Mississippi river, forcing a closure of 100 miles of the river.
Of course, much bigger spills have occurred in American waters. In 1969, the
blowout of a Unocal rig off the coast of Santa Barbara spilled 3 million
gallons, and in 1989 the Exxon Valdez spilled 11 million gallons off the coast
of Alaska in 1989.” These accidents call for a lot of economic hardship.
So it not
only does not benefit the average consumer, but it has disadvantages aside from
that as well. And, back to the pricing issue, the only other two ways the
problem would be solved is that we either have a decreased need for oil—and in
the same aforementioned article, it is pointed out that “the world consumed 43
billion barrels of crude oil in 2006 . . .”, and those numbers haven’t gone
down significantly—or a great increase in supplies: and offshore wind isn’t
working towards either of those things. To us, it doesn’t make a difference.
In all,
offshore oil drilling isn’t beneficial in ways that would directly matter to
us.
Sources: http://webuser.bus.umich.edu/ajhoff/pub_professional/The%20Simple%20Economics%20of%20Offshore.pdf
