March 31, 2010--You Can Drill 'till the Cows Come Home

A Blog from Susan Corbett, Chair, South Carolina Sierra Club

Today, President Obama announced that he will promote offshore drilling of oil and natural gas.  I'm not surprised that he is going in this direction, as he has long advocated exploring all options for our energy future, but I have little faith that offshore drilling will do ANYTHING to secure our energy independence.

It will take nearly a decade or longer for any offshore oil production to begin.  Oil companies have searched these areas and already have leases on the areas they believe have oil fields, yet they haven't opted to develop them.  Why not?  Because of the cost.  The amount of oil likely to be discovered will most likely be too little to make any significant difference.

Oil is a commodity whose price is set by global supply and demand.  Even if the US produced all of its own oil domestically, what would require oil companies to sell to US consumers for less than they could sell to French consumers?  Where oil comes from has no effect on the price. . .  Unless we nationalize our oil production, what is to keep the oil companies from selling their product to China? or India?

In a world of diminishing oil reserves (see Peak Oil) what is needed is a comprehensive move away from oil usage.  Oil produced offshore is likely to be much more expensive than oil from the major existing fields, since the energy (investment) needed to produce it will be higher (seeEnergy Return Over Energy Invested Equation).

Our whole economy, literally our whole culture, is built on cheap (less than $50 a barrel) oil.  Those days are gone.  We got a glimpse of where our oil future is going during the summer of ‘08.  The only reason oil prices stopped escalating was the crash and the subsequent recession that reduced demand.  Now prices are rising again, and, this time, they may not stop.

Offshore drilling is a waste of valuable time and energy.  We should be concentrating on the sure thing, known energy sources, like offshore wind and solar.  These could be brought on line immediately and with known costs and outcomes.  Drowning societies should not focus on grasping at straws. . .this is what offshore drilling amounts to.

Susan