Our lives revolve around oil. Oil brings food to our stores, comprises the fibers in our carpets and makes the plastic in our DVDs. With demand so high it’s no wonder attention has turned to supply, with some advocating the U.S. lift the ban against drilling for oil off its coasts. Is offshore oil drilling a golden opportunity, or would it only create a tidal wave of disaster?
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Offshore Drilling is a Dirty Business
- From Sierra Club
By Sierra Club - Explore, Enjoy and Protect the Planet
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Offshore Drilling is a Dirty Business:
Wake up and pay attention and demand the truth and the proof! Offshore drilling is indeed a very dirty, toxic, smelly, dangerous business. It is not at all like John McCain and his parroting cohorts say, as they thoughtlessly try to prey on people's fears out. They all either foolishly or deliberately say without research or reason: "Drilling for oil offshore is safe enough you know, why during our two biggest hurricanes Katrina and Rita, not a drop of oil spilled all of those platforms stood up." I guess none of the 134 lobbyists that work on McCain's campaign staff for their hero's Buffalo Bill, that musty old maverick and his sidekick little carbine carrying Caribou Barbie had enough time to look up the records of the U.S. Coast Guard which state that during and in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina alone 9 million gallons of oil was spilled. Oil spilled offshore, onshore, and into the Mississippi River. This record, like so many others has been hidden in plain sight since late 2005. This giant spill was really a total from over 564 separate oil spills, some totaling over 3 million gallons in one location alone and covering whole towns oozing and leaking unchecked. Another fact recorded by the U.S. Coast Guard is that over 113 oil platforms were completely destroyed and even more were damaged, over 453 lines/pipes were severed and/or damaged as well. These rigs, platforms, and pipelines as the oil companies explain, are shut down proceeding a storm, however what isn't ever mentioned is they are not purged of the thousands of gallons of gooey crude they are either holding ready to be piped ashore or loaded on to tankers that goes straight into the Gulf of Mexico when these rigs are blown apart by hurricanes. This is exactly what happened according to the Coast Guard's early estimate, over 743,000 gallons of oil poured right into the Gulf of Mexico as a result of Katrina. Also according to Coast Guard records every year since 2000, 1.3 million gallons of oil is spilled into to the Gulf in a category called incidentals. The Coast Guard directs you to add that figure to any spill/spills happening in the particular year you are researching to get a accurate total. This would make the total amount of oil spilled as a result of Hurricane Katrina + incidentals (1.3 million gallons + 9 million gallons equal a total of 10.3 million gallons of oil spilled. It would make it the 2nd. largest oil spill in U.S. history, second only to the Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska which was 10.8 million gallons. A horrible cost of this industry in the small towns, usually poor, built in close proximity to the refineries all around the Gulf Coast area. This is the cost of Cancer and other horrible degenerative diseases, these places are called cancer clusters. People in those towns have a well documented history of disfiguring tumors and an above average early and high death rate. There are always hidden costs of oil, the drilling of it, the refining of it, the shipping of it, and living in proximity to it. I'm not saying do not drill for oil, I'm saying do not drill for any more oil - so not drill anymore. We can do better than this - we can transition to cleaner energy the only thing standing in the way is the oil lobby. I say no more! The economics are not on the people's side and once we o.k. more offshore drilling we'll effectively chip away more, and more of the wetlands and barrier islands. They are our coastlines natural defenses and once they're gone, they're gone for good. I say No More Morons, No More Drill Baby, Drill - or Drill Here, Drill Now chanting! There are big, enduring consequences for this kind of short- sightedness and we the people are the ones left to pay - Let's all invest our federal money, (subsidies) in pursuing a better way.
- Barbara September 18, 2008 4:10AM
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Side: No
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Try Again
McCain and Palin did not just focus on the need for offshore oil drilling. They also very clearly indicated that we did indeed need to find better solutions to our oil addiction, but I guess some people failed to hear that.
Sure some oil was spilled during Katrina and other hurricanes, and I know it seems like a lot. However, if you were to think more on the positive side, you could ask yourself questions like these: What if more oil had spilled? Weren't we lucky that more oil didn't spill?
Anytime oil is involved, there are always chances that it will spill, but does that mean that we should just stop trying? I think not. We need to get back up on the bike and try again, but with a little more caution. We don't have to stop doing something in order to start finding an alternative. We really need to realize that we can multitask a little more, and we can be a little more open to new, and old, ideas.
- kirbi
February 11, 2009 5:13PM
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Side: Yes
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Yes and No
Anything we do will in some way afffect the environment, the only question is how. I think that if we drill off-shore then it needs to be in a way that will have a positive affect on the environment. At the same time I realize that it is possible that the there cold be some adverse effcts on the environment and I am OK with them as long as they are neither too severe or in having some negative we can fix our oil problem.
I am definitly for wildlife conservation, but only to a certain extent. Like all things in life, everything must be done in moderation. If we go too far either way on this issue, then this problem will either still be here or there will more problems in the future.
- Cajun72
February 17, 2009 8:11PM
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Side: Yes
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