Don’t stop at offshore drilling

Thursday, August 21, 2008 7:39 PM CDT

With the current debate over drilling offshore for oil we face a choice, yet it’s not the one which political candidates present — the choice of drilling or not drilling. The real choice is what else we do.

We must drill. There’s no getting around that idea. It is true that there will be no immediate effect on gasoline prices because developing a new oil field requires up to a decade, depending on which projection you accept. But it’s also true there is no projected date by which the nation’s energy needs will be met by forests of wind turbines charging plug-in hybrid autos, or acres of solar panels boiling liquid to drive generators, or some other scheme.

It’s true that there is an environmental risk from oil spills, and we need to make sure that penalties are certain and quick, not delayed for 20 years as in the Exxon Valdez case. Yet government data show that offshore oil and gas development contributes about 2 percent to the petroleum in the North American marine environment, the same amount as comes from recreational boating.

The fact is that there is no short-term substitute for petroleum, and there is also the fact that the greater our domestic supply the less we will be at the mercy of the political instability which is endemic in the Middle East and which is now appearing in the Caucasus region containing Georgia and important energy transport routes to western Europe.

There are other facts which make it imperative that we not depend on offshore drilling. Most important is the fact that petroleum is a non-renewable resource. Again, depending on which analyst you trust, global oil production is peaking about now or will in the next 20 years.

Projections don’t say oil prices will fall. Projections differ only in predicting how high prices will rise. There is also the prospect of global warming, and reducing or eliminating petroleum use will contribute to easing that risk.

Higher prices will drive changes such as less driving and the use of new technologies, but those technologies have to be ready. That is why, along with increasing offshore production we must — absolutely must — undertake a wide-ranging program to develop alternative energy sources and put them to use quickly.

We don’t need a program like the present, vaguely thought out and funded hydrogen economy idea but a program of serious intent backed with serious money as the space program was in the 1960s and 1970s. More than 30 years ago, after the oil embargo, everyone agreed on the need to develop alternative energy sources. But gas prices fell, our will faltered, and our government leaders ceased leading.

Here is the choice we really have. We can just drill and maybe slow the price increase for a few years, but then we face a shock to the economy and our lifestyles as we try to rapidly adapt to a petroleum-free world. Or we accept some drilling and vigorously pursue alternative energy sources with the result that we should be able to transform the shock into a hiccup or two. In the end, it’s really no choice.

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