Unfortunately, it is unrealistic to believe that our country will ever be able to survive if off-shore drilling is banned. We are far too dependent on oil in our everyday lives to solely rely on the war-torn Middle East to provide for us. For this reason, our country must work towards stabilizing and regulating the off-shore drilling industry in order to prevent future spills, and get the most out of our oil. Unfortunately, the lax regulations by the Bush and Obama administrations contributed to the Deepwater Horizon spill back in April. The Deepwater Horizon well had documented problems with its blowout preventer and several warnings and red flags had already been raised but, because of the lack of inspection and regulation, nothing was done.
A six-month moratorium on off-shore drilling was put into effect by President Obama shortly after the spill. For this reason, drilling as well as oil exploration has been halted. Soon though, the ban will end and the drilling will continue. However, this time the industry will be different. The scars remaining from the April disaster are not enough; strict government regulations need to be enforced. When drilling returns, no new drills should be built. However, improvements need to made to all existing wells in order to prevent any future disasters. While we cannot live without oil, I believe we need to start investing our money into alternative energy research. Our focus needs to be redirected from the oil past and into the alternative energy sources of tomorrow.
I like your blog a lot,I love the background, it's very theatrical and I like the way it illustrates your topic. But that is just by the way... I am in agreement with the appeal for stricter government regulation on oil drilling, and it should be everywhere, not just in America. Because what happens when regulations are enforced in only one place is that the oil companies are able to move to other drilling sites in different countries with less strict regulations and thus more profitable for the oil companies. And like you said, even though there are some regulations existing, they are not as enforced after a while. So truly, most environmental disasters arising from oil exploration are quite avoidable if the right regulations were enforced worldwide, and then just maybe our dependence on oil won't be as risky as it is. Furthermore, while we have already started researching in alternative energy sources, the general public remains entirely unaware of how feasible they are. Thus, the faster we educate people on these alternatives, the quicker they will be implemented.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment! I've focused my blog on the American side of this debate, but I agree with you that more regulation needs to be in place everywhere off-shore drilling takes place. We share the oceans and we share the oil. It seems like this might be a good topic for the UN to handle.
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