Last week I wrote a post entitled “Putting the Brakes on Offshore Drilling” that looked at the government’s plan for longer review of offshore drilling.  I also discussed the many dangers associated with ocean drilling and why we need to proceed cautiously.

We should not toy around with ocean drilling

Well today, TreeHugger has an excellent piece called “Offshore Drilling: Worth the Oil, or False Hope?”.  They offer comprehensive coverage of this topic, including background information and answers to the following questions:

1. How much oil do we get from offshore drilling today?
2. How much might we potentially recover?
3. What offshore drilling is currently banned?
4. What are the environmental risks?
5. Does offshore drilling offer false hope of plentiful cheap oil?

I talked last week about the dangers, but I was under the flawed impression that it may be worth the risks.  According to this story, lifting the ban on offshore drilling would not have a significant impact for at least 10 years and even then it would only save us pennies on a gallon of gasoline.

We need to accept the fact that oil is a finite commodity.  No matter how much we increase exploration; there will always be a limited supply.  We need to look past these false promises and focus on true oil alternatives.

photo credit: dierk schaefer

On Tuesday, Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar announced that they are adding a longer period of public review to the Bush offshore drilling program.  In a wise decision, the government wants to take more time to do the proper analysis before expanding this type of exploration.  There is more detail in this story entitled “Drill Baby Drill? Not so Fast: Interior Dept. Scraps Bush Offshore Drilling Plan”.

By adding 5 months to the review process, are we just delaying the inevitable increase in offshore drilling or is this a true change in direction away from this risky proposition?  In this story entitled “The Future Of Offshore Oil”, Dan Shaply cites the many dangers ocean drilling.  Hurricanes over the last several years have ruptured oil platforms and pipelines causing hundreds of thousands of gallons to be released into the ocean.  This along with oil spills from tankers present a serious threat to our oceans.

When gas prices were soaring to record levels, most people thought that offshore domestic drilling was a necessary evil.  Now that oil prices are way down, this option looks even less attractive.

We all understand the grim ecological objections against this type of drilling, but what is the alternative?  Should we, in the words of T. Boone Pickens, continue with the “greatest transfer of wealth in the history of mankind” to foreign countries that hate us?  Given this ugly option, I would definitely consider offshore drilling.  If you do not like either option, then you must embrace more aggressive conservation efforts to reduce our insatiable appetite for crude oil.

You may have seen these facts before, but they are well worth repeating again and again until we do something about it:

• We have 4% of the world’s population
• We consume nearly 25% of the world’s oil
• We only produce about 10% here in the U.S.

If we are going to protect our oceans for future generations then we need to take action now to break our addiction.  Let’s follow the government’s lead and put the brakes on our gluttonous consumption of this dwindling resource.  So instead of “Drill Baby Drill”, we should “Conserve Baby Conserve”.  Not too catchy, let me know if you have a better one.