I spent plenty of time in New Jersey--Interior held many of its meetings involving Mid-Atlantic leasing in the state capital of Trenton. In 1976, it leased 529,446 Mid-Atlantic acres to the oil industry for $1.1 billion. There was strong resistance up and down the Atlantic coast which included lawsuits.
In an environmental impact statement in 1978 in response to a lawsuit challenging the leasing of the Mid-Atlantic acres, Interior said: "Recovery of the affected area from a large spill will be slow, probably requiring a minimum of ten years." For the anticipated 20-to-25 year lives of the field, it forecast four large spills of more than 1,000 barrels, 58 spills of 50 to 1,000 barrels and 3,340 spills of up to 50 barrels.
Much of the Atlantic coast--like the coast of the northern Gulf of Mexico--is composed of back bays and miles upon miles of fragile wetlands, where marine life breed and feed. It's a "soft" coast that would absorb oil like a sop rag.
A leading scientist speaking out on off-shore Atlantic oil and gas drilling was the late Dr. Max Blumer of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute. When oil is spilled into the environment we lose control of it," Dr. Blumer warned. Countermeasures are "effective only if all the oil is recovered immediately after the spill. The technology to achieve this goal does not exist." It still does not.
Offshore Atlantic drilling has been prohibited for decades by Congressional action.
But that would end if Congress goes along with President Obama's declaration in a speech March 30 that "my administration will consider potential areas for development" for oil and gas drilling in the Mid- and South-Atlantic, the eastern Gulf of Mexico and off the north coast of Alaska.
Beyond the environmental devastation threatened, the drilling itself would have a huge price: the cost of off-shore drilling is estimated at ten times the cost of drilling for petroleum on land. This would make for very expensive gasoline, oil requiring huge capital and operating expenses to mine--the kind of money with which could vastly expand our getting energy from the sun, the winds and other clean, safe, renewable sources. But oil companies, being oil companies, are fixed on their product.
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
