The Benefits of Offshore Drilling Essay

Environmentalists are one the biggest critics against the notion of increasing domestic oil drilling. By increasing the amount of drilling we do in the United States, we increase the risk of disasters like the Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Disasters are hardly the only source of economic damage either, to find oil reserves under the ocean, seismic waves are generated into the ground. These waves bounce off the ground back up to the ship, where computers and scientist can use the results to make educated guesses on whether or not oil is located under the surface. These seismic waves can wreak havoc with marine animals like whales; where in one case over 100 whales beached themselves to get away from the painful experience (Nixon). Using seismic waves does not even guarantee that oil might be located underneath the surface, the only way to tell is to actually drill into the potential finds causing even more destruction for what might be for no gain. Once oil is found and drilling has begun, the amount of damage done to the environment can become unimaginable. The recent example is that of the Deepwater

Offshore drilling has become an essential part of today’s oil production and demand for energy. With the growth of population comes the increasing demand for oil. The oil industry today, is one of the most used providers of energy. Today in the 20th century the majority of the population in America has a car and cars needs gas to run. The oil reserves in the earth that are easily accessible via land are starting to run dry and are becoming harder to find. This is why we have begun to see more and more offshore oil drills. Although there are benefits of offshore drilling such as profit, lower gas prices, and becoming less dependent on foreign oil. There are also many drawbacks in which if something were to go wrong, the mistake would be catastrophic impacting the environment, the nature, and have trickling effects all around the world.

One of America’s priorities is creating more jobs for everyone and offshore oil drilling does create jobs like “specialized technicians, laborers, cooks, doctors, scientists and a number of other specialized workers as well as secondary jobs

Offshore drilling is a topic of extreme debate and argument and one of the most debated parts of that is whether or not it benefits the economy in the U.S. One of the first things to note is that stopping offshore drilling could potentially damage the U.S. economy, and therefore how much energy we can overall use. According to Mason, Joseph R., author of, "The Oil Industry Supports Many Louisiana and Gulf Region Economies", we can see the statement, "the moratorium would produce broad economic losses within the Gulf and throughout the nation as a whole". We can gather, from this, that ceasing offshore drilling/offshore oil production, could potentially harm the U.S. economy, and as I said before the economy being damaged overall decides

The development and manufacturing of the oil pipelines would bring a tremendous amount of job opportunities to the Canadian economy. Creating more jobs is important in the development of a country. According to CBC, it is projected that the development of oil pipelines

Americans have been drilling for oil for more than half of their existence. Before the 1850’s oil was of little use and had no market for commerce as there was not one overwhelming use for it. Until around the 1850’s, when technology advanced, with it sparking search for one of the most sought after natural resources that countries would later go to war over, petroleum oil. Early inventions like the kerosene lamp provided a new stable home necessity to live by, increasing the demand for crude oil. This would be met in part by Colonel Edwin Drake, who drilled the first successful oil well in 1858. While Drake’s invention for extracting crude oil from the ground would bring about a new era for industrialization, his “black gold” would bring about an even larger effect, the environmental disasters caused by man. For over one hundred and fifty years of drilling for oil, both on shore and offshore, has led to some of the worst catastrophes to both nature and mankind. While many of these catastrophes have led to the deaths of hundreds of crew members, they have also led to long lasting effects on the environment, local and national economies, legislation, regulations, and human morale. These following effects can be seen in the most recent and most contaminated marine oil spill in history. To the media and public it’s known as the British Petroleum offshore drilling oil spill in 2010.

America must wean itself off of dependence on foreign oil, and one valid solution to this problem is offshore oil drilling and production. America’s economy is heavily based on petroleum, as though it is the nation’s blood; a necessity for survival. About 25% of oil produced in the U.S. comes from offshore rigs. Most of the U.S. coastline has been off limits for oil drilling since the early 1980s. Due to environmental concerns after an oil spill off the coast of California in 1969, an offshore drilling moratorium was imposed. Since then, the U.S. has amplified its energy consumption to where it uses nearly 25% of the world's oil. Meanwhile, the U.S. produces about 10% of the world's oil. That has made the U.S. heavily reliant on imported

In addition, offshore oil drilling causes water pollution and disrupts the marine ecosystem. Doctor Ermal Xhelilaj states in his article, "The Behavior and Effects of Oil Pollution into Marine Environment and Oceans” that “Shorelines are also vulnerable to the oil pollution and a study of the US Coast Guard has revealed that exposed rocky cliffs and seawalls, wave cut rocky platforms, fine to medium-grained sand beaches, coarse-grained sand beaches, mixed sand and gravel beaches, gravel beaches/ riprap

BP oil leakage was noted that tons of crude oil was spilled into the open ocean, destroying the habitats that marine animals lived on. The environmental loss was significant. The impacts include the contamination of the coast, the ocean surface and the sea floor. The species that were affected include fish, seaware, planktons, birds, turtles, sharks, marine mammals such as whales. The impact was a long-term destroying to both the ocean and human, but one thing to be clear is that different area of Gulf coast have very different levels of contamination.

One of the most obvious pro of offshore drilling is that it greatly increases the amount of oil we use for fuel and energy, which in terms helps out our economy. It also allows us to not rely on other countries to supply the oil. This can help us reduce the oil price because if the oil is produced in our own country, other countries don’t have a say on the oil price. Another pro of offshore drilling is that it creates more job opportunities for people. Many skilled people are needed to operate the equipment, which opens up doors for new workers.

The environmental risks associated with offshore completions are similar to other oil and gas well drilling operations. Extemporaneous releases of hydrocarbons to the environment can occur during drilling or completion of the well. Macondo was not the first oil spill accident in offshore platforms, and will not be the last either. Oil spill is the main reason of environmental hazard with the flow of tons of oil into the sea water degrading marine and wildlife. While oil spilling is a regular phenomenon in the offshore industry (498 blowouts worldwide during 1970-2007), it not only affects the marine ecosystem, but also increases the water depth in the drilling area.

With the huge impact of the oil spill on marine life and coastal regions, fishing and tourism industries of the places affected in the Gulf Coast severely declined. In the fishing industry, the incident led to an approximate $2.5 billion loss, while tourist industries experienced a loss of a predicted $23 billion (Jarvis, 2010). In addition, the moratorium placed on deep water drilling left 58,000 workers unemployed (ibid).

Has anyone noticed that the gas prices have become affordable for everyone, the gas prices across the United States have decreased because of the growth of exploration to locate oil in states across America. Our nation has become one of the world’s largest oil producers. Our country does not export crude oil and import much less annually (Black). Although we are enjoy lower oil prices, the ramifications to our environment are taking a toll by increasing the number of oil spills. Thousands of gallons of oil are spilled each year from offshore facilities. The government can’t regulate storms and hurricanes that cause hundreds of oil spills. Oil is toxic for most fish and other marine species and cleanup methods can only remove a small fraction of oil spilled in marine waters (Black). Although gas prices have diminished, the healthy life of our oceans are coming to an end because of the marine pollution caused from the big drilling companies. The threat of oil spills increase with the higher number of offshore drilling areas up and down the United States coasts (Black). With offshore drilling the pollution is increasing which is altering the patterns of the fish and marine mammals around the world. Our water sources are the leading food sources in the world and many countries rely on them to feed the population. These water sources provide many job opportunities allow0ing people all over the world financially steady lives. Although

Advocates for offshore drilling claim that a ban would eliminate over one million jobs in the oil industry (Kreutzer). The number of people currently in the clean energy sector, however, surpassed 4.5 million. The number of jobs in the clean energy sector grows twelve times faster than the rest of the US economy (EDF). In fact, jobs created by clean energy would surpass the number of offshore drilling jobs created along the Atlantic Coast by 2 to 1 (Oceana). Also, the GDP the clean energy sector contributes grows rapidly and will surpass $1.3 trillion by 2030 (Guerrini). Additionally, offshore drilling threatens jobs that rely on a clean ocean. On the East Coast, 1.4 million jobs rely on tourism, fishing, and other ocean-related occupations (Oceana). These industries contribute $95 billion in GDP for the US. Allowing for more offshore oil drilling by inaction or deregulation will not improve the US economy. It contributes less than the coastal industries

Since the past few decades, owning a car has become a necessity in order to commute from one place to another. However, cars do not work automatically, they require fuel. Since the past decade, the petroleum industry has become one of the leading industries impacting the nation’s economy. Oil has become an essential commodity as it is utilized in transportation vehicles, serves as a raw material for manufacturing plastics, and is utilized in homes for cooking. America’s economy is greatly dependent on petroleum as it is the “black gold” of the nation. The considerable significance of oil has led to the drilling of it, which is not only limited to land, but also the oceans. Offshore drilling is a method in which petroleum is extracted from underneath the seabed. It is one of the significant technological advancements in the past few decades. However, the ones who are involved in the process of offshore oil production are humans, and humans tend to make mistakes. In 1969, due to a human error, an oil spill occurred and natural gas, oil, and mud shot up the well and oozed into the ocean (“Offshore Drilling”). The oil spilled led to an environmental disaster which killed thousands of marine animals and distorted the environment. In order to prevent the same error, the government passed a moratorium in 1981, banning more than 85 percent of the country’s oil drilling sites (“Offshore Drilling”). The moratorium restricted the United States to mass-produce its natural resource.