Just a few facts from the U.S. Minerals Management Service that you may not be aware of. I know I wasn't.
It was an off shore oil spill near California in 1969 that spurred the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency and Clean Air Acts. Since that time these two agencies have done their best to hamstring American businesses and the economy. Also since that time we've gone from carburetors to fuel injection, one phone per home to personal cell phones that are essentially powerful handheld computers, three TV channels to hundreds (plus video on demand).
In essence, a lot has changed in the last forty years and so has drilling technology. Spills are, for the most part, a thing of the past. Only 852 barrels of oil have spilled in the Southern California offshore area in the past 40 years (that's about 21 barrels per year). It should also be noted that when Katrina and Rita did their damage, tearing apart 115 Gulf platforms there were NO MAJOR SPILLS. No oil reached the shoreline. That's advanced technology for ya!
This isn't to say that spills don't happen. On average U.S. oil companies (who are immensely more ecologically responsible than just about any other nation on the planet) spill 6,555 barrels of oil per year from offshore drilling. WHAT?!?! NEARLY 300,000 GALLONS ARE SPILLED?!?!? Yep. Now guess how much oil naturally oozes from the ocean floor in per year in the drillable regions surrounding the United States. Guess again. How about 620,500 barrels. How about nearly 26 MILLION GALLONS! How about 2.5 Exxon Valdez spills EACH YEAR?!?!? Naturally.
This natural spillage, however does not happen in areas where we have offshore drilling equipment because these efforts to remove oil from the ground eases the natural pressure and thus, no leakage. Which is to say that if we drilled MORE we would have LESS mucky oil spilling into the environment.
Love the earth... DRILL FOR OIL!
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