Oil and gas exploration to start off Florida coast

July 7, 6:32 PMGlobal Warming ExaminerJohn Ryden

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Off-shore oil drilling

Florida is seeing some early activity 125 miles off its coast along the Panhandle. This is the result of a 2006 congressional compromise that opened this small area in exchange for keeping the moratorium on drilling along the rest of its shoreline.

It can take 5 years or more between the time when a lease is obtained and the exploration companies will see any return on their investment. It can take $100 million to $200 million and two years just to evaluate the commercial prospects for a lease. If it is determined that commercial quantities of oil and gas exist, then it can take billions of dollars and several more years to install all of the production equipment and drill production wells to extract the oil.

That is not the only area in Florida where oil drilling may be starting. Oil companies from Norway, China, Brazil, Spain, and other countries are exploring and developing plans for drilling as close as 45 miles off the Florida Keys. They are not exploring in US waters, as this would violate the congressional moratorium on drilling, but are exploring in Cuban waters. It is estimated that the Cuban deep-water leases may hold as much oil as in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) in Alaska. Cuba is hoping the oil found in its off-shore tracks may reduce or eliminate its need to import oil. That would be a tremendous benefit to Cuba as it would sharply reduce the amount of oil they have to buy from foreign sources.

We have restricted drilling off-shore to protect our environment. It seems that no amount of benefit to our economy or improvement in our negative trade balance is worth the remote risk of an oil spill. An oil spill from drilling may cause oil to wash up on a beach. What about damage to aquatic life?

The facts do not support a ban on drilling. Off-shore drilling related accidents that release crude oil into the environment is actually very rare. Much more oil is lost transporting crude oil in tankers than is lost from production platforms. The oil platforms actually are good for fisheries. The reefs and fisheries off the coast of Louisiana actually benefit from the oil and gas development:

"Whether an operating oil and gas production platform or a retired platform intentionally placed for conservation and fisheries enhancement, a typical four-pile platform jacket (the underwater support structure of an offshore platform) provides two to three acres of living and feeding habitat for thousands of underwater species," according to the U.S. Department of the Interior, Mineral Management Service (MMS).

Florida is starting to realize that it is no longer politically popular to be against all off-shore oil development. They might be worried about keeping their beaches pristine for the tourists, but they are starting to realize that without gasoline, the tourists will not take the family vacation trip to Florida because they won’t have the money for airfare or gasoline. A bad economy is also not good for vacation spending. The economic pain to the state of Florida from not drilling may become too great. Maybe Florida will weigh its energy options and start pushing for increased drilling.

It will take decades for us to transform our energy infrastructure to renewable fuels. Trying to speed the process along by stopping the development of our fossil fuel resources will not increase the rate we develop renewable energy, only push our economy into a prolonged recession. The entire world only produced 3.8 Giga Watts of solar cells in 2007. Even if solar cell production triples in 2008, it would still not make a significant difference in world energy production. Even if we buy all of the solar cells produced in the next couple of years, it will not come close to meeting our additional energy needs. It is great that solar cell manufacturers are increasing production capacity rapidly, but it does not mean our energy problems are solved. These solar cells will be produced whether or not we drill off-shore.

We should be developing all of our cleanest energy resources now as we transition from the energy age of fossil fuels to a new age of renewable energy. We should be phasing out the production of fossil fuels like coal which produce much more carbon dioxide than oil or natural gas. We shouldn’t even start to think about the sizable investments it would take to develop energy resources like oil shale. That money would be better spent on renewable technology. We need a strong economy now to provide the resources to  invest in renewable energy infrastructure. What's stupid is to waste the production technology and resources our energy companies have developed to extract oil and natural gas to meet our current energy needs. If we can't develop the energy here, we will end up paying a very high cost to import our energy from overseas, or to buy goods manufactured in another country. The imported energy or imported goods may produce more global warming than developing our own off-shore energy resources.

It amazes me that the Cubans can move forward and develop their energy resources and in this country we can’t.