The Pros And Cons Of Offshore Oil Drilling

We challenge the assertion because of the threat to the environment, all U.S offshore drilling sites should be shut down by 2018. We counter that U.S offshore drilling is beneficial to the economy, reduces our dependency on other countries for oil and, despite what many may argue, has the positive environmental effect. Throughout this essay, we will prove that the threat to the environment from offshore oil drilling is not as great as the benefits that it brings. The United States’ economy would be deeply hurt if we banned offshore oil drilling. This is because oil drilling in the US is going to be very lucrative field since petroleum production is expected to rise 18% between 2010 and 2035. According to the Energy Information

The U.S currently produces around 40% of its own oil needs, while the rest mostly comes from Canada, Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Venezuela, and Nigeria, according to NPR. While relying on other countries for necessary materials is not necessarily bad, it makes no sense to import something that can be produced domestically for less money. Another important factor to realize is that allowing for offshore oil drilling to occurs brings money into the hands or U.S oil investors while driving away dollars from OPEC, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. OPEC is an organization which according to former CIA director James Woolsey is “With only one or two exceptions, OPEC is effectively dictatorships and autocratic Kingdoms.” By buying oil from these countries, such as Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, we legitimize our support for these dictatorships and the human rights violations that they commit. The Institute for the Analysis of Global Security reports that in Saudi Arabia, the Saudi government sent money to fund madrasas where Anti-Americanism was being propagated and thusly causing an ideological environment that generated terrorism. There has also been more evidence of Saudi people paying their state mandated charitable donation to terrorist groups linked to Al Qaeda. With the current status of world affairs, it would be best not to increase our

While accidents obviously do happen, the technology designed to prevent oil spills have been greatly improved and environmental damage heavily reduced. In actuality, offshore oil production has lowered the amount of oil released into the ocean by reducing offshore oil seeps in areas such as California’s Santa Barbara Coast. These oil seeps account for 63% of hydrocarbon pollution in the US according to the National Academy of Sciences whereas only 1% is due to offshore drilling and extractions. According to the Country of Santa Barbara website, oil seepage zones lead to 70,000 barrels worth of oil being washed up on the shore. In 4 years that’s more oil than the 240,000 barrels that spilled from the Exxon Valdez in 1989. Seeps are also one of the world's largest methane gas emission sources according to Martin Hovland’s “Chemosphere”. If people are worried about the environmental effects of oil drilling, they should focus on the fact that the drilling itself doesn’t add to the