Friday, April 30, 2010

Offshore Oil Drilling

I suppose what we are now seeing explains why a lot of people did not want offshore oil rigs off the coast of their communities. When they malfunction, they can spread a lot of crude over a large distance in a short period of time. I am going to assume that the American Government will tighten restrictions on offshore drilling, which will decrease their domestic supply. That bodes well for our tar sands, which don't present nearly as dangerous a hazard (I feel bad for the dead ducks, but millions of barrels of oil steaming towards the Louisiana coast is not a comparable incident). Sand is hard to spill, and if it does, rarely does it travel hundreds of miles.

I have been a proponent of offshore drilling in the past, mainly as part of my "all of the above" energy policy. I think we should pursue everything and let the markets evolve as they may. But as I'm watching this oil slick float to the American coast, I am less inclined to support offshore drilling as a part of our energy policy.

3 comments:

  1. Strange how all the companies involved including BP are big cap & trade/Alternative energy(pipe dream) financiers.
    I don't think this was an accident.

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  2. Don't abandon off shore drilling.

    Its a freak accident.

    If your house burns down do you stop living in houses ?

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  3. This is deep sea drilling, and recapping it is a problem because the financial penalty was not steep enough.

    How much will this cost BP? Exxon survived their spill and have grown.

    If Jail terms for executives were entrenched in international law, the safeguards would have been much tougher.

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