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The article below was published in the April 24th edition of Roll Call as part of a Policy Briefing entitled "Energy and The Environment."
Drilling in U.S. Won’t Fix Oil Crisis By
Rep. Jim Davis, With fuel prices on the rise, energy companies and their friends in Congress and the administration have renewed their call to open the Outer Continental Shelf to oil and gas drilling. However, drilling in the OCS provides neither short-term relief nor a long-term solution to our current energy crisis and presents enormous risk to America’s beaches, marine and tourist industries.
For more than two decades, Congress and Presidents George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush have protected America’s shores from the hazards of offshore drilling. The Congressional and presidential moratoria on drilling in the OCS were designed to prevent irreversible economic and environmental damage to America’s coastal communities, and those same risks hold true today.
Yet as millions of Americans plan summer beach vacations, energy companies have launched their attack, with the eastern Gulf of Mexico and Florida’s shores as their primary target.
The energy companies that own leases in the eastern Gulf but have been prohibited from drilling in the area, are eager to recoup their investments. However, allowing drilling in this region will do little more than help these companies to cover their losses. And when Exxon Mobil Corp.’s chief executive’s pay package amounted to $190,915 a day last year, should Americans really be concerned about energy companies’ bottom line?
Here are the facts: The administration says there are 5.52 billion barrels of economically recoverable oil and 31.92 trillion cubic feet of economically recoverable natural gas in the eastern Gulf of Mexico. At the rate Americans consume energy, that’s enough oil to supply our nation for only 272 days and enough natural gas for 530 days. In contrast, the central and western Gulf, where drilling is permitted, contains 31.4 billion barrels of oil and 200.6 trillion cubic feet of gas, or 1,547 days of oil and 3,332 days of gas.
The limited amount of oil and gas that exists in the eastern Gulf simply is not worth the risk. If we allow oil and gas drilling to damage Florida’s coast, or any of America’s shores, we will spoil a national treasure for generations to come and threaten the stability of our tourism industry and the jobs and revenue that come with it.
My home state of Florida welcomed 85.8 million visitors last year alone. That’s more people than the entire population of Germany. Those visitors contributed more than $57 billion to Florida’s economy, funding that not only kept the state’s tourism industry running but also helped fund roads and build schools.
The energy companies like to say that today’s drilling operations are safe and clean, but there is a reason why tourists prefer Florida’s beaches to those of Texas or Louisiana. Last summer, the devastating impact of offshore drilling was made clear when a rig off the coast of Louisiana spilled oil into the Gulf while workers were evacuated for Tropical Storm Arlene. As a result, nearly 700 brown pelicans were killed on Brenton National Wildlife Refuge, a nesting place for 15 percent of the world’s brown pelicans.
Several proposals to open the eastern Gulf to drilling promise to keep rigs 125 miles or more from Florida’s shores, but these promises offer little protection for Florida’s beaches. Rig operators in the Gulf know better than anyone the powerful force of the Gulf’s currents.
Experts on ocean circulation have warned that an oil spill in the eastern Gulf’s Lease Sale 181 could reach Florida’s beaches within 24 hours due to the circulation system on the West Florida Shelf. Even more frightening is the potential for a spill to be picked up by the Gulf’s powerful loop current, which regularly reaches Section 181. This loop current could rapidly carry an oil spill through the Florida Straits and up the East Coast, tarring the Florida Keys and Atlantic beaches along the way.
Rep. John Peterson (R-Pa.) has proposed opening the eastern Gulf just to natural gas drilling, claiming that drilling for natural gas is cleaner and safer than drilling for oil. However, when energy companies drill, they harvest whatever comes out of the well — gas or oil — and it is not uncommon for oil to be found in “gas-prone” areas.
Even without a spill, any kind of offshore drilling can lead to significant environmental damage on our shores. Massive amounts of waste muds and cuttings, which contain toxic metals, are generated by drilling operations, and hundreds of thousands of gallons of “produced water,” polluted with a variety of toxins, are discharged from wells each day.
This is why Floridians, folks from coastal communities nationwide and those who cherish long walks on unspoiled beaches have been fighting to protect the OCS moratoria.
I hope every Member of Congress who has enjoyed a beach vacation will join me in supporting Sens. Bill Nelson (D) and Mel Martinez’s (R) Permanent Protection for Florida Act, which I have introduced in the House. This bill would extend the OCS moratoria until 2020. It also offers permanent protection to Florida’s shores, removing existing leases close to Florida’s coastline by granting royalty forgiveness on active leases in the western and central Gulf. In return, the bill allows drilling in a limited portion of Section 181.
Those lobbying to open the OCS to drilling claim that this move is an important part of a national energy policy. I challenge them to prove that this Congress and the Bush administration have offered any energy policy that addresses the long-term energy needs of Americans.
Instead, this administration has focused on drilling wherever it can, whatever the cost. In fact, while the president’s budget included increases for solar, wind, hydrogen, biomass and biorefinery research and development, it cut other alternative energy and conservation programs, including the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy and weatherization assistance grants, and eliminated the geothermal technology and hydropower programs.
America needs a national energy policy that focuses on long-term solutions, develops alternative energy sources and commits to conservation efforts. And we need an energy policy that respects one of America’s greatest natural resources — our beaches.
Rep. Jim Davis (D-Fla.) is a member of the Energy and Commerce Committee.
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