It's Time We Drill in the Gulf

The United States relies on foreign oil imports for over 60 percent of oil consumption in an average day. As a result of unstable foreign relations and natural disasters, gas prices have soared well above three dollars a gallon, creating a burden on consumers across the nation. Our country contains more natural resources than many Americans realize, yet we are not using them to their full potential. According to the Mineral Management Service (MMS), there are 44 billion barrels of oil that are technically recoverable in the Outer Continental Shelf of the Gulf of Mexico. It is time we utilize our own natural resources through expansion of the drilling program in the Gulf of Mexico.

Environmentalists and opponents of expanding the drilling program argue that increased drilling, particularly off the west coast of Florida, would create an environmental hazard and would hurt the tourism business for the state of Florida. They claim that thousands of birds, aquatic animals, and ecosystems would be damaged or destroyed if an oil spill were to occur in the Gulf of Mexico. Florida’s economy would suffer, they argue, by the hit the tourism business would take if such a disaster were to occur. To the common voter and apparently to Governor Jeb Bush, these all sound like strong and reasonable arguments. However, I will outline and explain several reasons how and why environmentalists and others have exaggerated and distorted the risk of an oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Since 1982, the Gulf of Mexico has accounted for 20 percent of the United States’ oil production, pumping out approximately 25.3 million barrels of crude oil and petroleum. Since 1950 there have been 267 major oil spills in the Gulf of Mexico. A major oil spill constitutes a spill of at least 10,000 gallons or more. There are 42 gallons in a barrel. Therefore, using history as a basis of which to work from, we can conclude that an average barrel of oil being transported in the Gulf of Mexico has a .003% chance of being spilled.

Since 1992, NASA has been collecting altimetry data using four satellites which orbit the earth continuously. Altimetry is the study and analyzation of sea surface height and is the best way to map ocean currents from space. Utilizing this data, ocean currents are the strongest in the central part of the Gulf, directing their course in circles away from land and/or out towards the greater Atlantic. West Florida beaches are not in danger whatsoever of ocean currents carrying oil spills to their shores. In 2001, a request for expansion of the drilling program was denied and defeated by Governor Jeb Bush on fears that a possible accident or oil spill would ruin the thriving tourism business along Florida’s West Coast beaches. This action by the governor left the majority of the Eastern Gulf of Mexico free from offshore drilling. However, the proposed drilling sites are located hundreds of miles from the coast of Florida, and because of the contour and direction of the ocean currents, no threat is posed to Florida’s beaches or ecosystems.

The bottom line is that the oil drilling industry is much safer than many believe. Oil is a natural resource which comes from the environment. The environment has several ways in which it takes care of itself. Biodegradation and dispersing agents are highly effective in warm water environments such as the Gulf of Mexico. Micro-organisms, such as bacteria, feed off of the oil and eventually cause it to disperse and/or evaporate. Often gelling and dispersing agents are added to the affected area in order speed the process. Many oils, such as kerosene and gasoline contain a large amounts of flammable substances known as light ends, causing the gas to float on the surface of the water. Wave action and micro-organisms using biodegradation then break down the heavier components to lighter ones, and continue the process until the oil evaporates, greatly reducing and often times eliminating the toxic effects to the environment.

In an increasingly unstable world economy, the United States must finally look to its own natural resources for the supply that it so desperately needs. Self-sufficiency in oil and gas would lower energy prices, boost our economy, and release us from the political and economic ties we are forced into with major oil-producing countries. Call or write your representatives in the Florida State Government and let them know that their constituents believe we need to expand the drilling program in the Gulf of Mexico and finally utilize 44 billion barrels of our own natural resources.