You may have gotten this from Greenpeace today as I. But for those
who haven't, I am copying their 10 reasons why Off shore drilling is a
bad idea. They start with #10:
"10. Offshore oil drilling won't impact gas prices today, and it won't have
a significant impact on gas prices in the future.
9. This is nothing more than a money grab by the oil companies-who are
already making record-breaking profits.
8. We burn 25%of the world's oil here in the U.S., but we have only 3% of the world's oil reserves. So even if all offshore oil magically came to market today, the vast majority of our oil would continue to be imported, and we wouldn't see price relief at the pump.
7. The current moratorium was put in place decades ago to protect us from the danger of oil spills along our coastlines and beaches.
6. Burning fossil fuels like oil causes global warming, which causes stronger
hurricanes, which will threaten the very offshore drilling rigs being proposed, which will contribute to even more global warming.
5. To avoid the worst impacts of global warming, we need to switch from fossil fuels to renewable energy within the next 10 years. The billions of dollars that would be spent on offshore oil drilling just postpones the inevitable transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy. (Did you see on TV the billionaire Pickens touting his idea of creating a wind tunnel corridor from Texas to Canada to harvest the power of wind? Yes, he said it will be a costly endeavor, but if it frees us from dependence on Saudi oil, I think it will be worth it.)
4. Oil exploration requires massive seismic testing-which threatens whales and dolphins.
3. Oil prices are set on the global oil market, so American oil is no cheaper than Saudi oil. We won't get a discount for oil drilled in the U.S. (The oil companies as I understand it haven't paid the taxpayers a red cent for the other oil leases we have given them already- this per NOW)
2. We can't solve the world's energy problems with the same drilling that created them.
1. Renewable energy is available now, so it's time to walk away from fossil fuels and toward a clean energy future."
I think we should also be tired of not only giving big US oil companies --free oil leases which belong to ALL of us, but I am also tired of the Saudis getting billions of dollars each year from us for their oil. Bush claims he is trying to contain Al Queda. Didn't I read that some of them, if not all of the 9/11 terrorists were Saudis?
And lastly, I think we should look seriously at the Pickens' idea re harvesting the power of the wind. If we can spend billions of dollars on oil, why not try spending billions on wind instead? I would rather see us fail than not try at all.
