Daniel J. Weiss | January 11, 2011
Washington, D.C.–Big Oil and their allies are continuing to lust after huge profits at the expense and welfare of the American people by ignoring the recommendations released today by the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling to improve safeguards for future offshore oil production, and instead pushing for expanded oil production. Their rush to drill first and reform later comes in direct contrast to the reports findings that the BP spill was a result of “systemic” problems in the oil and gas industry and “absent significant reform in both industry practices and government policies, might well recur.”
Today Tom Donohue, president and chief executive of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, also ignored these findings in his “State of American Business” address at the chamber’s headquarters and urged the government to stop delaying permits for energy development on U.S. shores. Expanding offshore drilling without new safeguards will have negative impacts. Weiss’s column validates the need for safeguards that will prevent another oil spill from happening.
The following are three major problems with expanding offshore drilling without new safeguards:
- Expanded drilling can never address our imbalance between domestic oil production and consumption as the United States has only 2 percent of the world’s oil reserves yet it consumes 20 percent of the world’s oil.
- An increase in U.S. oil production will make little or no difference in the world oil price or what Americans pay at the gas pump.
- This oil land and water grab ignores several important Energy Information Administration findings. One of these findings is that more than four out of five barrels of oil off the coasts in the lower 48 states are already available for development.
To read the full column, click here.
Daniel J. Weiss is a Senior Fellow and Director of Climate Strategy at American Progress.
To contact Daniel J. Weiss, please contact Anna Soellner at [email protected] or at 202. 478.5322.
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