The Hill: The Big Question: Should Obama reconsider offshore drilling? (May 3)

[chill_wind]

The Big Question: Should Obama reconsider drilling?
By Sydelle Moore - 04/29/10 01:32 PM ET

Some of the nation's top political commentators, legislators and intellectuals offer insight into the biggest question burning up the blogosphere today.

Today's question:

Should the Obama administration reconsider its offshore drilling plans because of the Gulf Coast oil spill?

Tyson Slocum, director of Public Citizen's Energy Program, said:

YES. This disaster - which claimed the lives of 11 workers in addition to threatening the Gulf coast with an ecoological armaggeden - underscores that the mantra of "drill baby drill" carries far more risks than rewards.

Offshore drilling puts workers and our environment at risk. BP alone has paid $485 million in fines and settlements to the U.S. government for environmental crimes, willful neglect of worker safety rules and penalties for manipulating energy markets.

Further, ending the moratorium on offshore oil drilling would have little impact on domestic crude oil and natural gas production or prices before 2030, according to the Energy Information Administration. That's because the U.S. isn't Saudi Arabia; we sit on only 1.6 percent of the world's oil reserves, while the Saudis have 20 percent. The oil we have can't make a significant dent on our imports or impact prices.

And opening new areas to drilling while failing to hold oil companies accountable for fleecing taxpayers on existing drilling leases is unfair. Because of a bureaucratic oversight by the Department of Interior during the implementation of the Deep Water Royalty Relief Act of 1995, oil companies that secured leases in 1998 and 1999 were exempted from royalties, regardless of the prevailing market price of oil.

Recent lawsuits have exposed more leases going back to 1996 to this same loophole. This stands in stark contrast to other, similar leases, which require the payment of royalties if the price of oil exceeds a certain threshold. The GAO estimates the loss to the U.S. Treasury of more than $50 billion over the life of these royalty-free leases - a huge subsidy for Big Oil. And investigations have found serious problems in the management of the entire royalty program.

The bottom line is that our energy future doesn't lie off our shores. Instead, we should be investing in wind and solar power, and renewable energy.

For more responses, see http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/the-administration/95125-the-big-question-should-obama-reconsider-drilling