If there’s one thing we’ve learned lately, it’s that ,while oil companies may know a thing or two about finding and extracting black gold from the ground, they can’t rub two sticks together while trying to fix something gone wrong. For this reason, US District Judge Martin Feldman in New Orleans, who lifted President Obama’s deepwater drilling moratorium, needs to retract his decision. I am the last guy to stand up and pull one down for big government, but the Obama administration has the ball this time. There are quite obviously extenuating circumstances in this instance which makes further deepwater drilling in that region, for the foreseeable future, problematic at best; catastrophic at worst.
Deep Water Drilling: For:
While the situation has been dicey since the sinking of the Deepwater Horizon rig off the Louisiana coast in April, there are those who feel that the moratorium is too far-reaching in scope and does not correctly explain why it’s been put in place. These individuals include District Judge Feldman who, according to Bloomberg, in his decision said: “The court is unable to divine or fathom a relationship between the findings and the immense scope of the moratorium.”
Okay, that’s fair enough. But still, the six months that President Obama asked for does not seem all that drastic in light of the fact that it’s already been two months, and there is still oil gushing and gushing from this hole in the ground which no one can plug. They can’t even build a new well So, while I can appreciate the judge’s decision on the grounds that the verdict is broad and indefinite, Feldman needs to rethink his position.
Deep Water Drilling: More For:
The argument on the one side is that we need to keep gas prices down, keep oil flowing into our homes, and keep on drilling. Justice Feldman maybe cut at the Obama verdict best when he said, “The blanket moratorium, with no parameters, seems to assume that because one rig failed and although no one yet fully knows why, all companies and rigs drilling new wells over 500 feet also universally present an imminent danger.”
While that is the argument for more deep water drilling (“unprecedented! We’ve drilled so many times before and nothing’s gone wrong!”), that doesn’t change the fact that there is something gone wrong now. We need to put capitalism and our wallets aside and think with our heads for a minute here. Like, if more deep water drilling is going to have an irreversible effect, we need to consider that. The fact that this one well is spewing out oil could change the whole composition of the ocean floor; we just don’t know.
Deep Water Drilling: When Will This Well Stop:
I recently wrote a piece titled “Won’t the Oil from the BP Spill Eventually Stop?” While I don’t know if he’s an expert, I didn’t like the answer. Associated Content producer Nolan O’Brian commented, “No it could go on for years and years if left alone. The pressure of the oil at this depth is tremendous.” Years and years? And we all want to dive right back in to drilling?
So, that’s it; that’s where we are. Why would we go back into the game, playing by the old rules, when the chess rook has become a football? The rules of this game are irrevocably changed; we need to recognize and honor that. We need to not drill in the area until we can all get into a deep huddle, breathe, and figure out this new games playbook.
Sources:
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-06-22/u-s-deepwater-drilling-ban-lifted-by-federal-judge.html
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/5505486/wont_the_oil_from_the_bp_spill_eventually.html?cat=75
http://www.associatedcontent.com/user/322658/nolan_obrian.html
