Column:

Drilling, offshore or in the U.S. is not the answer

By Trevor Turner

Published Oct. 17, 2008

Drill, Baby, Drill! Those three words seem to be the McCain-Palin solution for solving our energy crises. Palin has made it really popular by throwing in a few "you betchas" and "hockey moms." But is offshore drilling really a good idea? I can give you my own "Joe Sixpack" response with a big hell no!

Now, to be fair, I am aware the McCain campaign has proposed a multidimensional solution to our energy crises using wind, solar, nuclear, etc. I am also aware that Barack Obama added limited offshore drilling to his myriad energy solutions, much to my disagreement. However, McCain and especially Palin have made "Drill, Baby, Drill" their battle cry in this election. Offshore drilling is an ineffective and harmful attempt to solve our energy catastrophe.

Not only will offshore drilling have no positive impact on our energy problem, it is also disastrous to the environment. According to a recent article in USA Today, even the cleanest oil drilling platforms contribute to coastal erosion and spill 10,000 barrels of oil every four years. The U.S. Department of Energy estimates that offshore drilling will reduce gas prices by about 2.5 cents per gallon by the year 2025. What's the point of saving 2.5 cents on a gallon of gasoline when gas prices will probably be $10 a gallon?

The department also estimates that there are 18 billion barrels of oil off the shores of the U.S. The country uses on average 7.5 billion barrels of oil a year, so we would still have to import billions of gallons of oil from Venezuela and the Middle East. We would still be addicted to foreign oil.

In addition, drilling for more oil would make it worse. Just because it's American doesn't mean it's solving any problems. It's like choosing to smoke a pack of American-made Marlboros instead of a Cuban cigar. It might be American, but it's still killing you.

It is just not worth the environmental damage for such negligible economic return. It surprises me that as Governor of Alaska, Palin would suggest drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. With thousands of plant and animal species going extinct every year, why would we want to exacerbate that by invading a wildlife refuge for oil?

The same thing goes for all the coastal and marine wildlife that would be affected by offshore drilling.

Last week I suggested that investment in education and our universities would yield a solution to our economic crises. I also think that it would yield solutions to our energy crisis that are cost effective and safe for our environment. We are already on the right track with the serious interest in solar, wind and nuclear power. General Motors will be releasing the purely electric Chevy Volt in a couple of years. Instead of wasting precious time and money on this debate about offshore drilling, we should be looking into serious and practical solutions to our energy problem. There is no one solution. It will require a plethora of different ideas and plans to attack and solve our addiction on foreign oil and make America truly energy independent.

Trevor Turner is a member of the MU College Democrats. He can be reached at tturner@themaneater.com.