Harsher Restrictions for Drilling

Several days ago the House approved a bill that will force safer regulations on offshore drilling. In addition, this bill will also enforce new fees on oil and gas production and remove a federal cap on economic liability for oil spills. This bill is in response to the disastrous Gulf oil spill that happened back in April.

Naturally there was disagreement over this bill between Republicans and Democrats. What this Bill will do is ban companies with serious environmental or workplace violations in the past seven years from being granted new permits for offshore drilling. The issue found by many Republicans and even some Democrats with high interest in oil fear that these regulations will hurt the U.S. economy. They believe it will take away countless U.S. jobs and raise energy prices.

This issue has not yet reached the Senate. According to a New York Times article the bill would:

- remove the $75 million cap on economic damages to be paid after big oil spills,

- increase the financial responsibility demonstrated by offshore operators to 300 million dollars,

- and finally create “conservation” fees on oil and natural gas that has been extracted from federally owned land or water

This was particularly disturbing to Rep. Doc Hastings, the ranking Republican on the House Natural Resources Committee. He believes that the removal of the liability cap could be extremely detrimental to small and medium-sized drillers.

With this said I actually think this bill is a great step in the right direction. With the number of oil spills occurring offshore lately there had to be steps taken to try and ensure that such spills cease to happen. The environment is so destroyed each time there is a spill, not to mention we lose more and more of our oil. Big companies should be held responsible for their actions in these spills. And while I don’t want to see smaller drilling companies hit, we really need to have the safety of our environment and the preservation of our resources as a number one concern.

Louisiana Just Can’t Catch A Break

Just when you thought things were starting to look up in terms of the oil spill in the South another disaster strikes. That may sound a little dramatic as we don’t yet know the reach of this spill, but it’s really not too far off the mark. It is highly unlikely that this spill will ever reach the catastrophic proportions that the April 20^th Deepwater Horizon spill reached, and a Jefferson Parish Councilman has already said he believes that the spill can be stopped today. However, the fact that there is another spill so soon after that one and so close to the origin of that spill is disturbing.

It was reported by the AP that a tugboat ran into a wellhead in a bay by Mud Lake. Oil is now being emitted into the water and is visible above the surface. This occurred to the north of a bay where officials have been working steadily to contain the spilling oil from the BP tragedy.

This area has been described as “ecologically sensitive” and although no one is sure yet how much oil is being ejected into the water, there are reports of a visible sheen in the lake.

Oil is such a crucial resource to the United States and we have lost so much of this resource within our own borders. We already didn’t like being so dependent on foreign oil, and it seems like these constant spills keep pushing us back to the oil in the Middle East.

The way I see it one of two things needs to happen here. Either we need to have more competent rig workers and boat captains and there needs to be a higher emphasis placed on personal responsibility, or we can’t keep drilling deep-sea oil wells. If we aren’t capable of drilling out in the water without causing environmentally detrimental spills then we can’t keep drilling there.

We really need more stringent regulations on our oilrigs and more constant monitoring that these safety regulations are enforced. People keep saying that it was under President Bush that regulations were slackened. But the way I see it is that he has been out of office for a year and a half and perhaps Obama should have paid closer attention to these issues. After all it has been under Obama that the worst spill in history occurred. But now is the time for increased monitoring to make sure another spill doesn’t occur. It’s too late to go back and prevent the ones that have been, now it’s time to look to the future and the preservation of our environment.