http://energy.nationaljournal.com/2010/05/a-moratorium-on-new-drilling.php
MONDAY, MAY 24, 2010
By Amy Harder
NationalJournal.com
Should the government clamp a moratorium on new offshore oil and natural gas drilling until more is known about how the Gulf of Mexico spill could have been prevented or minimized?
Key congressional Democrats are urging the Obama administration to halt current oil drilling in the gulf, postpone planned drilling off Alaska, and abandon plans to drill off the Virginia coast. Meanwhile, a group of Gulf Coast lawmakers from both chambers is asking the administration to lift the ban on shallow-water drilling. The month-long suspension imposed by the administration is set to expire May 28 when the Interior Department issues its safety report on offshore energy production. There are seven pending drilling permit applications, two in deep waters and five in shallow.
Should the administration extend the current suspension? Should it be broadened to current and/or future drilling operations in the Arctic Ocean, off the East Coast and other parts of the gulf? Can the U.S. afford to curb its offshore drilling, given its dependence on oil?
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MAY 24, 2010 7:37 AM
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Arctic Drilling Should Be Suspended
By Bill Eichbaum
Vice President of Marine and Arctic Policy, World Wildlife Fund
The Beaufort and Chukchi Seas off the coast of Alaska’s North Slope are two of nature’s most untamed places. Pristine, yet forbidding, the gale-force winds, dark skies and icy waves make these vast bodies of water appear desolate. Yet the region is teeming with wildlife, including polar bears, seals, walrus, birds, whales and more than 150 species of fish.
This remote corner of the Arctic feels a world away from the Gulf of Mexico, where more than 3,000 drilling rigs are in active service, and tens of thousands of gallons of oil continue to gush from the BP Deepwater Horizon blowout.
Yet if all goes as planned, in less than a week from now, a ship operated by the Shell Oil Co. will begin its journey to the Arctic, in preparation for drilling that is scheduled to start on July 1.
It may be months before we fully understand the underlying causes of the BP catastrophe. And as we’ve witnessed, oil spills are difficult to contain even under the best of circumstances. After more than a month, …
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MAY 24, 2010 7:35 AM
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Suspend All New Drilling
By Frances Beinecke
President, Natural Resources Defense Council
Yes, the administration should impose a moratorium on all new offshore drilling activities. Existing plans to move ahead with projects were based on the assumption that the likelihood of a serious spill was virtually too remote to contemplate. The catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico has shattered that assumption.
In light of the Gulf tragedy–now one-month old and counting–America should halt new offshore leasing, exploratory drilling, and seismic exploration.
The moratorium should remain in effect until the causes of the current spill and their ramifications are fully understood.
I am pleased that President Obama is establishing an independent commission to investigate the disaster and that two experienced and fair-minded figures, former Senator Bob Graham and Former EPA Administrator William Reilly, will lead it. The work of a fully independent commission is our best hope of finding out what caused this catastrophe and what we can do to make sure nothing like this ever happens again. No new offshore activities should be allowed until we receive the…
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MAY 24, 2010 7:34 AM
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Room For Compromise?
By Mark Muro
Fellow and Director of Policy, Metropolitan Policy Program at Brookings
It goes without saying that the nation should legislate no new commitments to offshore oil drilling without first getting to the bottom of the colossal BP disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.
That means investigators, lawmakers, and the public at large need to really grapple with the Deepwater Horizon mess.
In this respect, lawmakers need to understand what technical things went wrong and get a grip on what regulatory failures played a role. But beyond that–and hardest–all of us need to take from this debacle a little more serious appreciation of the unavoidable costs of our oil addiction. Along these lines, it remains quite mystifying that President Obama only last weekend began to tie what Brad Plumer over at The Vine calls “the nasty side effects of our fossil fuel addiction”–from massive spills to the risks of catastrophic climate change–to a broader ca…
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MAY 24, 2010 7:33 AM
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Oil Consumption Numbers
By Bill Snape
Senior Counsel, Center For Biological Diversity
In assessing whether to continue dangerous offshore oil drilling in the United States, let’s look at some numbers. First, Americans consume approximately 20 million barrels of oil daily, or 7.3 billion barrels annually. Second, the estimated amount of recoverable oil in the Gulf of Mexico is approximately 44 billion barrels, a number that is larger than the Pacific, Atlantic and Alaska waters put together. Further, the Gulf of Mexico now produces roughly 1.7 million barrels of oil daily, which is less than one-tenth of current American consumption (this does not count the 100,000 barrels daily that the BP blow out is currently spewing and wasting).
Put it all together and what does it mean? Even if we completely destroyed the Gulf of Mexico, it has only enough oil to satisfy our thirst for seven years. This, of course, ignores the billions, if not trillions, of dollars of damage we would do to fisheries, tourism, clean water, homes and wildlife were we to follow the Bush/Salazar logic of more drilling. Most of our oil does not come from oceans and outer …
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MAY 24, 2010 7:32 AM
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Oil And Water Don’t Mix
By Carl Pope
Chairman, Sierra Club
If there is one lesson from the Deepwater Horizon it is that we should not be continuing to allow new oil drilling in the ocean. Such drilling will unavoidably continue to pollute the marine environment, poison fisheries, and devastate coastal economies dependent on recreation and tourism. The promise of “safe, clean” off-shore drilling is a chimaera, a myth — and a fraud.
This is not because off-shore drilling technology is ALWAYS inadequate. It is because oil companies are ALWAYS irresponsible.
It is because MOST OF THE TIME is not good enough.
It is because both the ocean and oil and gas strata geology are highly unpredictable, so technology which works most of the time won’t work all of the time. We don’t yet know what happened at Deepwater Horizon. But it’s clear that Blow Out Preventers, which are the final line of defense, don’t work all the time — and they didn’t work here. It’s clear that as the industry goes deeper and deeper the difficulties of testing the equipment…