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I've always wondered why they don't allow offshore drilling. The accident/ spillage rate is so small. I don't think I've ever really heard of a large spill from a rig. Especially now since the Red Chinese have entered into an agreement with Cuba and will be drilling 60 miles offshore anyway. Why aren't we,other than because of a bunch of UNEMPLOYED tree huggers who don't need to pay for gas to GET TO WORK anyhow! That's why they are so vocal. They are not at work. Same with ANWR. The caribou seem to love the warmth of the pipeline and the people who protest don't live near there anyway. Most of em in fact would last about 1/2 a day out in the woods. Thanks Captain for this thread.
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The Florida tourist industry doesn't want to spoil the view for the tourist. A rig 15 miles from the beach can not be seen unless you are on the top floor of a high rise and then just barely. On the other hand they may increase the dive and fishing tourist business. Louisiana gets a lot of fishermen from other areas just because of the large fish populations on the rigs. Our beaches are just as clean as Florida beaches, just not as pretty because of the brown sand and near shore brown water neither of which is a result of offshore drilling.
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Captain, you've been around long enough and should know better than to waste effort making a logical argument to irrational people. It's like all the big SUV's with "save the whales" and "no nukes" bumber stickers. As it is, some flipper fan will see this clip and decide it would be a great idea to put up a rig after all. As long as it wasn't visible from the surface, and didn't actually drill for oil.
Anyway, with Florida a pivotal swing state in the upcomming election, you can bet that no amount of reason will convince either party to risk upsetting anyone down there.
In the 70's America looked to the Gulf of Mexico for offshore drilling as a response to the oil embargo. Those of you who have been around for a while might remember having to wait in line at the pump only to pay close to 10 times the price of a gallon of gas just a year earlier.
In the late 70's and early 80's there were a series of disasterous oil spills as a result of offshore drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. The most famous of which was the Ixtoc I oil spill of 1979 which destroyed about 270 miles of US and Mexican coastline. Since then (as recent as 2007) there have been numerous oil spills in the Gulf; some caused by transportation accidents, some caused by storage, some caused by hurricanes, and some caused by accidents on the platforms.
I live in Florida and I have been to the other Gulf states and seen the tarballs wash up on the Texas coast (some tar is natural, most is from oil platforms and transportation Texas Monthly: Read Me. Texas). I couldn't imagine not having white sandy beaches. Florida is the only state in the country with a barrier reef and it is the only state with a national underwater park. None of that would exist after 10 years of opening up Florida's coastline for offshore drilling.
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I've always wondered why they don't allow offshore drilling. The accident/ spillage rate is so small. I don't think I've ever really heard of a large spill from a rig. Especially now since the Red Chinese have entered into an agreement with Cuba and will be drilling 60 miles offshore anyway. Why aren't we,other than because of a bunch of UNEMPLOYED tree huggers who don't need to pay for gas to GET TO WORK anyhow! That's why they are so vocal. They are not at work. Same with ANWR. The caribou seem to love the warmth of the pipeline and the people who protest don't live near there anyway. Most of em in fact would last about 1/2 a day out in the woods. Thanks Captain for this thread.
Politicians love to promote drilling as a solution to the twin problems of high-priced oil and foreign dependency on oil because we Americans love solutions that don't involve any self-sacrifice. No matter how implausible they may be. Yes, there is oil in ANWR, and some more offshore that is not being exploited. But we have an estimated 3% of the world's oil reserves and consume 25% of the world's production (2004 figures). So clearly, more drilling doesn't effectively address the problem. Per 1000 persons, Americans consume 70 bbl/day, compared to, for examples, 43 bbl/day in Australia, 32 bbl/day in France, and 30 bbl/day in the UK. A Ford F150 gets 14 miles per gallon of gas. A Toyota Prius gets 46 mpg. We waste a lot of gas. A partial solution is staring us in the face.
Last edited by vladimir; June 26th, 2008 at 07:02 AM..
Reason: clarity
Captain, I watched the video. There were no obvious reasons in it as to why we should allow drilling off Florida. It was merely a video of sea life on a rig. It could've been taken on most any of our thousands of artificial reefs.
All environmental damage from rigs does not come from spills, but also from the drilling itself which produces silt that can kill our natural reefs.
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Disclaimer: All discussion of value, by me or anyone else, is opinion.
The Florida tourist industry doesn't want to spoil the view for the tourist. A rig15 miles from the beach can not be seen unless you are on the top floor of a high rise and then just barely. On the other hand they may increase the dive and fishing tourist business. Louisiana gets a lot of fishermen from other areas just because of the large fish populations on the rigs. Our beaches are just as clean as Florida beaches, just not as pretty because of the brown sand and near shore brown water neither of which is a result of offshore drilling.
Hi Capt: Been visiting them since the late 1940's and I am sure we will never make any converts....no question during the period of the 1940's thru the early 1980's we had a [B][U]lot[U] of problems with the indurstry, but that is no longer the case.....my reason for the post is to ask "what beaches .....the only ones I know about are Grand Isle and the Cajun Riviera (Holly Beach)...Ha, Ha!!
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We're going to run out of oil sooner or later anyway. So we buy 5 years by drilling in environmentally sensititive areas and risk destroying what few pristine areas we have left. Why not develop alternatives now, rather than waiting until after we destroy the reefs?
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