Should the U.S. Allow Offshore Oil Drilling?

Recommend (1) Comments (5)

Americans are suffering from the high cost of gas, but drilling for lower prices is a fraud.

America consumes one-quarter of the world’s oil but only has 3 percent of its reserves. Opening our fragile coasts to access this small amount of oil simply won’t make a dent in our needs – particularly as we compete with rising demands in China and India . 

Furthermore, it could be years before America reaps any benefits from expanded coastal drilling, and even then it will be a matter of cents, not dollars.

According to the Department of Energy, offshore drilling will not impact oil production for ten to twenty years. This means that a decade or two from now, Americans could save somewhere between 3 and 4 cents. Clearly this is too little and too late for Americans that deserve a solution today. 

Continuing to drill will only keep us dependent on oil, which is good for no one but Big Oil and their Washington allies.

Instead of relying on the same, disastrous policies that got us into this mess, we need to invest in innovative, homegrown solutions that will reduce our dependence on foreign oil and lower the cost of gas. Even oil man T. Boone Pickens said “this is one emergency we can’t drill our way out of,” and Americans agree with him. In fact, in a recent poll , 83% of the respondents said they want to end our dependence on foreign oil by investing in clean, renewable energy sources.