Drilling for Oil in the U.S.

Drilling For Oil in the U.S.

To drill or not to drill, that is the question. Should the United States exploit its own fossil fuels or continue to rely on significant imports until some substitute for oil and gas can be found. Experts say that there is enough oil beneath US territory to last us over a century, whether it is offshore or under dry land. In fact some of the most coveted oil reserves are located off the coast of the US: the US Department of Interior estimates that there are over eighteen billion barrels of oil and seventy-six trillion cubic feet of natural gas underneath the country's outer continental shelf. This does not include the reserves from which we are currently drilling. Many ask the question, is it worth it economically to disturb the environment by drilling for oil on and off land? My answer to that question is yes. Since our entire economy has been built on a foundation of fossil fuels it is in our best interest to have a reliable domestic supply; furthermore, providing our own fuel would benefit national security as well as protect our environment.

Our nation's economy was built on the use of fossil fuels, the main one being oil. We use oil in basically every aspect of our lives including transportation, industry, and even the production of electricity. Many plastics and other synthetics are derived from oil. Oil, when refined, produces resources such as, kerosene, gasoline, petroleum, and synthetic rubber products. This resource is found in many of our products that we use today. The number of products that contain derivatives of oil is amazing. Without oil, life as we know it would not be possible.

Not only has our economy been built on oil, but also provides jobs for many people. Currently the offshore drilling industry alone provides 240,000 jobs. The OCS has partnered with other oil companies in hope of opening up more drill sites. This will increase the number of industry jobs to four hundred thousand. This is not taking into account the number of jobs that are not in direct relation to the actual extraction of oil. There are many more jobs that are supported by the oil industry and do not involve working on cite. For example, in order for the oil companies to extract the oil from the earth, there must be other companies that manufacture the tools required to drill. These manufacturing companies need workers to operate the machines to build the tools, trucks and drivers to deliver them, secretaries and book keepers to keep track of them, CPA's, and lawyers to comply with government tax laws and other regulations. The money earned (up to a hundred thousand dollars annually for a skilled oil worker) supports families, restaurants, automobile dealers, stockbrokers, hair dressers, teachers, and every other occupation in a typical town. Dawn Briggs, former EPA employee states, "Benefits would be direct in job creation but even more indirect benefits. Oil is not just drilled; it must be processed and transported. The money would benefit many states and all the people who do business in the area."

The U.S. has grown from importing 35% of its oil to 60% by 2006. This shows that the U.S. has become almost twice as dependent on foreign oil imports since the time of the 1973 Oil Embargo. By breaking our economic ties from the other countries, the price of oil would drop, and we would not see significant change in prices until 2030. Even then the prices would not have a significant difference. What drilling for oil in the U.S. does do is provide a "safety net" for the economy. To avoid what happened in the 1973 oil embargo, the U.S. economy could then rely on the oil we produce to provide a route so that we would not crash due to lack of oil. It would also improve our balance of trade. By producing the oil in America, yes we would still continue to buy the oil, but this would help circulate money back into our own economy making it stronger, as well as, eliminating our trade deficit.

Another example of critical importance of oil is the dependence of the U.S. military on fuel. In fact our Department of Defense is the single largest consumer of oil in the United States. Oil is the primary resource the Department of Defense consumes for energy. Approximately eighty percent of fuel resources the DoD uses is attributed to oil. The U.S. military consumes up to 395,000 barrels per day. The Defense Logistic Agency says that around 170,000 barrels of oil are shipped daily to America troops around the world. The transportation of this fuel is very expensive. Here in America the average price of a gallon of gas is $3, but the average cost for a gallon overseas is about $42. Our national defense system works hard to protect our country, but they clearly rely on oil in order to accomplish their missions at home as well as overseas.

These supplies are made in different warehouse located throughout the country, where warehouse workers assemble everything from tanks to uniforms. In these warehouses machines are needed to help stitch, screw, or weld any piece of material together to make the ending product. For these machines to help assess workers, they need energy, and most of the time this energy comes from oil. These warehouses are very dependent on fossil fuels in order to provide the energy needed to produce the supplies neccessary to perform in arm to arm combat.

Over the years we have become more and more dependent on other countries to provide us with the oil that we need. Each day the U.S. imports over 13.15 million barrels of oil. Two-thirds of petroleum products are imported from foreign countries. The majority of our oil is shipped all the way over from countries in the Middle East. This area of the world does not contain the most America-friendly nations. Knowing that we are clearly enemies with some of these foreign countries (e.g., Iran), why would we depend on them for our most valuable energy resource. For example, if Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz, which they have threatened with, would be disrupted.

The protection of the environment has been a hot topic in the news for quite some time now. All of this talk about global warming and such has captured people's attention. Scientists talk about how the emissions of fossil fuels and greenhouse gases are destroying