The Problem(s) With Off Shore Drilling

Now that Trump has made a decision to open our our oceans to offshore drilling, it has become apparent that while he calls himself a genius he certainly is not a visionary. If he was a visionary he would know that the day of Oil and Fossil Fuels is over, like all the other non-renewal resources. Clean Energy such as wind, solar, and hydroelectric power and nuclear fusion are the future. 

As I see it the biggest problem with off shore is it cannot be undone. Are these oil companies going to put out a minimum of  $200 million to build one and just let it go? I say not!

Of more interest is when interior Secretary Ryan Zinke wanted to exempt Florida from Trump administration’s proposed offshore oil drilling plan. One can know that the sole reason is his acknowledgment that offshore oil drilling harms the coastal economy and tourism. He said, its coasts “are highly reliant on tourism as an economic driver.” And where is he from… you guessed it Florida….

If that is the case Alaska, Hawaii, Washington, Oregon, California, Texas, Alabama, Louisana, North Carolina, South Carolina ($19 Billion dollar tourism industry), Georgia, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, New York, New Jersey, Virginia, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania should not have off shore drilling. That doesn’t even include the Great Lakes. That is 20+ states, which then should also be excluded. You can imagine how many other politicos are opposed.

The governors of New Jersey, Maryland, Delaware, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, California, Oregon, Washington, and the Attorney General of Rhode Island all are formally opposed to new leasing off their respective shores,” the Senators continued. “Additionally, more than 150 municipalities on the East Coast, West Coast, and Gulf of Mexico have passed resolutions opposing offshore oil and gas drilling and exploration. The New England, Mid-Atlantic, and South Atlantic Fishery Management Councils, the Department of Defense, Air Force, and NASA have all weighed in expressing serious concerns or opposition to offshore exploration and drilling. More than 41,000 businesses and 500,000 fishing families have also expressed opposition to drilling in their communities.” (Source) 

• One of every 6 jobs in the U.S. is marine-related
• Over 1/3rd of the annual U.S. Gross National Product originates in coastal areas – approximately $700 billion!
• California: 6ocean-dependent economic sectors, marine transportation, which accounted for $14.1 billion, or 31%, of California’s ocean-dependent GDP in 2012 (NOAA ENOW, 2015). Center For The Blue Economy 
• 2013, North Carolina’s 20 coastal counties represented 6.8% of the state’s total gross domestic product, or GDP, at $32 billion, and 8.2% of total employment with 336,522 employees. The ocean economy in North Carolina is closely linked to these counties. The coastal counties, the ocean economy contributes 6.6 percent of GDP and 12.9 percent of employment. (Source) 

Do we need oil for Transportation? NO

• 70% of all oil consumed in the U.S.  is used for transportation. The day of ‘gasoline’ as we know it is OVER. Hybrid, Electric cars, mass transportation, Uber, LYFT, ride sharing, bike sharing are the future of moving people.
• 51% of a barrel of oil becomes gasoline and projected to drop drastically by 2050 according to the Renewables global futures report.
• Electric cars are rising significantly, from 1.2 million in 2015 to around 100 million by 2035 (6% of the global fleet).
• 25% of electric vehicles (EVs) are plug-in hybrids (PHEVs), which run on a mix of electric power and oil, and three-quarters are pure battery electric vehicles (BEVs). (BP)
• 50 miles per US gallon in 2035 will be the norm as compared with less than 30 MPG in 2015 – In other words, cars are becoming more efficient and less dependent on oil.

Do we need oil for plastic bags? The day of the plastic bag as we know it is OVER. The USA uses 100 Billion plastic bags per year (Wall Street Journal) and the day hopefully in my life time all plastic bags will be banned.

• 8% to 10% of our total oil supply goes to making plastic
• 12 million barrels of oil a year are used in making the plastic bags used in the US.
  
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Do we need more oil for Plastic Bottles? Unfortunately the plastic bottle has only been banned in Concord, Massachusetts. Because single use plastic bottles are costly for governments we should see some changes in this arena.

• Legislation banning the sale of single-serving plastic water bottles passed in Concord, Massachusetts on April 26, 2012 with the law taking effect on January 1, 2013. (Wikipedia)
• San Francisco is making an effort to ban single use plastic bottles on city property. Other cities have followed through. Many schools and colleges globally are banning single use plastic bottles. (More information on Ban The Bottle)
• The Pacific Institute estimates that the equivalent of more than 17 million barrels of oil were needed to produce plastic bottles in the USA. Making enough plastic to bottle 31.2 billion liters of water required more than 106 billion megajoules of energy. Because a barrel of oil contains around 6 thousand megajoules.

What about Oil Spills 

• 2017:  two large spills (>700 tons) and four medium spills (7-700 tons) The first large spill occurred in June when a tanker sank in the Indian Ocean with over 5000 tons of oil on board. The second incident involved a tanker which sank off the coast of Greece in September spilling about 700 tons of oil. Of the four medium sized spills two were recorded in January 2017 in South Asia and Southeast Asia; (Collisions). A third spill was reported in East Asia in August. The fourth medium-sized spill occurred in October in the USA. (ITOPF)
• 1.3 million gallons (4.9 million liters) of petroleum are spilled into U.S. waters from vessels and pipelines in a typical year. A major oil spill could easily double that amount (Live Science in 2010)

Does the American public pay to restore the animals and plants harmed by the spill? Technically no.. but

• BP wrote off the cost of its $32 billion cleanup effort after the spill, costing American taxpayers roughly $10 billion. The Justice Department reached a $4 billion criminal settlement with BP over its role in the deaths of 11 workers on the oil rig when it exploded. (Forbes)

Off Shore Drilling and Environment: are so numerous to count, polluted water, seismic blasting, pipe leaks, dead seabirds and more.

Bottom line can we really afford to take a chance with off shore drilling?