NC should resist push for offshore drilling
Published July 27, 2014
Editorial by News and Observer, July 26, 2014.
Even as the Obama administration presses for action to halt climate change, it has approved a new search for fossil fuels off the Eastern Seaboard. The decision not only contradicts the administration’s goal of reducing greenhouse gases, it poses a serious threat to coastal environments and the tourism industry.
The first step in a process that could bring oil and gas drilling off the coast from Delaware to northern Florida will be seismic surveys of the seabed near the coast. That process approved on July 18 provides a preview of the environmental havoc that can occur with offshore drilling, a concern that had kept the Atlantic coast officially off limits for drilling since the 1980s.
Seismic surveys involve boats towing sonic cannons that send powerful sound waves underwater. Computers read the echoes to create what an energy industry official called “a sonogram of the Earth.”
The U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management received more than 120,000 public comments on allowing seismic surveys. Most of the comments were negative, but apparently not enough to stop the BOEM from giving a green light to an explosion of sounds that could seriously harm sea creatures that rely on hearing attuned to the relative quiet of the deep.
The sonic cannon booms could kill marine life at close range and disturb the navigational and migratory patterns of fish, sea turtles, dolphins and whales. The surveying process can involve sonic cannons being fired underwater every 10 seconds for weeks at a time. The BOEM environmental impact statement estimates that the testing could injure 138,000 marine mammals, including the endangered Atlantic Right Whale, whose numbers are estimated at 500 or less.
To its credit, the BOEM has required that ships doing the testing have whale watchers aboard and that certain habitats be closed during birthing seasons. But some harmful effects from the underwater racket can’t be contained. The booms of up to 250 decibels – about twice as loud as a thunderclap – have been detected by underwater microphones more than 1,000 miles away.
There’s not much that can be done to stop the testing that could start early next year. And there may be scientific benefits from getting a closer look at the seabed’s geology. Ironically, it could help find suitable locations for offshore wind turbines.
But the prospect of oil and gas drilling should be opposed on land as loudly as the air cannons will be underwater. That’s especially true in North Carolina where the state’s long coast and barrier islands are prime resources and the basis for its tourism, coastal real estate and commercial fishing industries.
Unfortunately, the opposition will not be coming from North Carolina’s governor’s office. Gov. Pat McCrory has led the effort among some East Coast states to encourage offshore drilling. McCrory, who serves as chairman of the Outer Continental Shelf Governors Coalition – a group of coastal governors who advocate energy expansion – says the drilling would bring jobs to the state and could help make the nation energy independent.
North Carolinians should be alarmed by the Obama administration’s capitulation to the oil industry and by McCrory’s eagerness to see drilling platforms off the coast. Offshore drilling leases are scheduled to be up for sale by late 2017, when current congressional bans on East Coast drilling expire. The energy industry could be extracting oil and gas off North Carolina in the 2020s.
Whether drilling happens and where will depend on the size and location of any oil and gas deposits indicated by the surveys. And even if deposits are found, the federal government could still balk at approving drilling.
But North Carolinians can’t wait to see what might happen. They should press the state and federal government now to ensure that drilling does not occur.
North Carolina should not gamble the wealth of resources it already has along the coast to pursue a payoff that’s full of guesses and risks.
July 27, 2014 at 12:24 pm
Norm Kelly says:
Just from the title of this editorial I figured it was either an N&D original or one from Chris. Reading this one is going to be fun/funny. Not informative, not chock full of useful information, nothing to do with creating jobs or stirring the state economy. Most of what's here is going to be based on 'socialist science' 'liberal talking points' and not much else. I'll try to keep an open mind, but since it's from the N&D editorial staff, I'm not expecting much. I'll be back.
Starts off well, speaking of the occupier, 'presses for action to halt climate change'. Global warming threats turned into climate change because the 'facts' about warming turned out to be false/lies/'misinformation'. So it transformed (occupier speak!) to climate change cuz that was a broader topic and then everything, absolutely everything, could be blamed on climate change. It's gotten to the point that media outlets are almost blaming the monumental failures of the occupier on climate change. Almost, but not quite. They are still propping him up as best they can, but it's getting so obvious that he's a failure in everything he touches that even the 'centrist' K is avoiding him on the to campaign trail.
But what do the facts show? Temperature change in the US isn't near what 'experts' and socialists told us it was going to be. Of course, then there's the fact that the climate has changed DRAMATICALLY over the millenia WHEN HUMANS DIDN'T EVEN EXIST! So if the climate changed so dramatically, from frozen tundra to desert, without the 'assistance' of mankind, how do the socialists expect us to believe we are so much to blame now? Of course, they have no justification for their beliefs other than it is their religion. And is it Mars that is experiencing global warming also, where NO HUMANS EXIST!?!
Energy exploration within the US should be wide-open, with only limited, intelligent, scientifically proven, regulation. Scare tactics, like those used by the anti-fracking crowd, that shows water faucets in Penn exploding in flames, need to be restricted or eliminated. The socialists who believe the lies about fracking need to take a step back and make plans to be more honest and less scary with their opposition. Everyone who knows anything about water faucets exploding in flames in Penn knows that it's been happening for years before fracking started. So, dishonest, misleading, misinformation, or outright lies by opponents should stop. Honest opposition is acceptable. Off-shore drilling should be pursued. Banning it may have been the right thing to do decades ago, but to keep the ban in place is to ignore that improvements have been made in technology. Wind and solar are unreliable. Should we stop trying with either? No. But if it's a technology that is worth expanding, it's a technology that should be forced to stand on it's own. The government, at any level, should NOT be subsidizing either wind or solar technology. Contrary to the lies propagated by the socialists in Washington or the N&D editorial board, 'big oil' is NOT subsidized by taxpayers. These companies take advantage of the existing tax code just like any other company takes advantage of the tax code. Some other companies, like the beloved GE, and the ever-popular Apple, and the relatively new love of the Socialist Party of the US FaceBook, pay little to no taxes to the feds because of the same tax code that 'big oil' uses. Do socialists and their supporters hate, despise, protest any of these companies? No, generally speaking. Why? Because too many of the protestors take their marching orders from the ignorant liars in the central planning wing of the Socialist Party of the US. Where does K stand on allowing off-shore exploration? Does she support the economic development this would bring to our state and it's citizens? Or does she stand with the Socialist Party in opposition to self-sufficiency and support of dependence on 'foreign' oil?
Common sense regulation in ALL energy exploration is called for. Outright bans on technology is short-sighted, and defeatist. It's like burying your head in the sand, refusing to see that the world around you has changed.
