Offshore oil drilling -Gulf of Mexico (USA)

Off-shore oil drilling refers to the drilling of oil in deep waters. The reasons behind this situation in the US are that President Obama is making it a priority to wean America off foreign oil and instead obtain oil from its own resources – oil from under the sea bed, as well as achieve energy independence. However, offshore oil drilling does not only have benefits, the cons of this issue regarding the environment are extremely significant. But first, let me state some of the pros.

Pros:
It is intended to reduce dependence on oil imports, generate revenue from the sale of offshore leashes and lower the prices of oil in terms of petrol. It is estimated that the Gulf of Mexico holds somewhere around 70 billion barrels (42 gallon of oil per barrel) of oil while 40 billion of which remains undiscovered in the deepwater. There’s also thought to be more than 85 billion barrels of undiscovered crude oil off the coast of the US. These are more than a decade’s worth of oil at USA’s current oil consumption pace. With all these oil, the USA can achieve its goal within years.

Cons:
Nevertheless nothing is perfect. In this case, the cons are actually much more than the advantages. Environmentalists believe that offshore oil drilling is not the best way to achieve energy independence as we are risking our environment by doing so. The deepwater drilling may unearth toxins from below the seabed and these may eventually end up in our seafood supply. Possible accidents may occur such as the explosion of oil drilling plat forms (e.g. BP oil spill), spillage of oil by “boats” transporting them and the bursting of oil pipes. All these lead to large amounts of oil being released into the ocean which threatens the ecosystem in an area – marine life and coastal communities will be impacted. Furthermore, it takes months to drill a deepwater well and it is rather costly (>$100 million). Even with million-dollar, hard-as-diamond bits, drilling four and five miles through mud, salt and several layers of rock is painstaking work. In fact, it relies incredibly on luck to actually find oil after all the extensive drilling.

Offshore oil drilling is definitely not a long term solution towards the running out of energy resources or to seek energy independence. One day, the oil supply we have will eventually run out and we have to turn to other alternatives. Most people are placing revenue and solving the current problem of a higher priority than the environment which they live in. The damage dealt to the ecosystem by offshore oil drilling is immense and is an immediate area of concern. If we were to forsake the environment for benefits, in terms of development and immediate salvaging of the shortage of energy resource, that is not permanent, eventually would we even have an earth to live on? I believe that turning to renewable resources for energy as a cheaper alternative to non-renewable resources, lower damage dealt to ecosystem/environment as we improve economically and technologically and as a more sustainable and desirable method to achieve energy independence. Hence, the benefits of offshore oil drilling are not worth the undesirable consequences.