Rocky Mount Telegram Editorial: Our View: More drilling not the answer
Rocky Mount Telegram
July 3, 2008
Republican gubernatorial candidate Pat McCrory this week joined the growing chorus of politicians calling for increased offshore drilling for oil and natural gas.
The Charlotte mayor chastized politicians who oppose the idea as espousing hypocritical not-in-my-backyard thinking after President Bush last week called on Congress to lift the federal moratorium on offshore drilling along the Atlantic Coast.
Like most supporters of opening up more coastal areas to drilling – such as U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole, who recently reversed her position on the matter – McCrory said that conservation coupled with renewable and alternative energy sources will not be enough to help the country come to grips with the exploding cost of oil. Increased production efforts must be a part of the mix, he said.
Unfortunately for the GOP hopeful, the facts just don’t seem to back up his case.
According to the federal Mineral Management Service, 90 percent of the 89 billion barrells of recoverable oil believed to lie offshore is already available for drilling – mostly in the Gulf of Mexico and off the Alaskan coast. And the Energy Information Administration reports that even if all coastal areas were opened up for drilling, the increased supply would not cause gas prices to begin to drop until 2030.
North Carolina’s coastal areas provide an environmental refuge for hundreds of species of waterfowl and other wildlife. Tidal areas provide habitat for shellfish, shrimp and a decent living for the state’s fishermen. And the coast also produces an economic bonanza each summer for the state’s travel and tourism industry.
The meager benefits that might be realized by lifting the ban just don’t stack up to the potential environmental and economic costs such action would inflict on the state’s prized coastal region.
