DeFede Columns

MIAMI (CBS4) ― Separating Fact from Fiction on Offshore Drilling
By Jim DeFede

The rhetoric has been stunning.

According to President Bush, John McCain, and Charlie Crist, if we just start drilling for oil off the coast of Florida, gas prices will fall and our lives will all improve.

Listening to the three of them this week has been a lesson in how to deflect attention from the real problems facing this country.  The notion that as a country we can drill our way out of the energy crisis or that by drilling off Florida's coast or in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), we can end our dependence on foreign oil is just patently false.

The United States sits on three percent of the world's oil supply but we consume 25 percent of the world's oil.  And the fact that it would take seven to ten years for any oil to be produced from those offshore wells, and that it will have no impact on the current price of gasoline, has been all but lost on Bush, McCain, and Crist.
 
Nevertheless, I realize the push to drill off of Florida is very appealing to a lot of people who just want the government to do something, anything to help with the pain they are feeling when they fill up their gas tanks.
But when you look at the fact – and sift out the rhetoric – you will realize drilling won't work.

A recently released Congressional report produced by the House's Natural Resources Committee, found the following: 

• Between 1999 and 2007, the number of drilling permits issued for development of public lands increased by more than 361 percent.

In other words, more drilling does not mean lower gas prices. But if you still believe – as the President apparently does – that high gas prices are a simple matter of supply and demand (and not the result of oil company greed or price manipulation from speculators), then there are already vast tracts of land, leased and ready for drilling, that the oil companies are just sitting on.

According to the Congressional report: 

• Onshore, there are 47.5 million acres of federal land leased by oil and gas companies, and yet those companies are only drilling on 13 million acres (34.5 million acres unused)
• Offshore, there are 44 million acres of land leased by oil and gas companies, but they are only drilling on 10.5 million acres (33.5 million acres unused)
• Which means, right now, without having to drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge or off the coast of Florida, there are 68 million acres of federal land – both on and off shore – that are ready for drilling but are sitting idle. 
• According to the Bureau of Land Management, since 2004, oil and gas companies have received 28,776 permits to drill on public land, but only 18,954 have actually been used. Which means the oil and gas companies have stockpiled nearly 10,000 permits.

If the oil companies actually went ahead and drilled on all of the land currently available to them, it would generate an additional 4.8 million barrels of oil a day, which would nearly double the amount of oil produced within the United States.

So, why would the oil and gas companies sit on the land?

There are a number of reasons. The capacity of our oil refineries are near their limits, so no matter how much oil we pump out of the ground, turning it into gasoline presents a whole different set of problems.

Another possible – and dare I say it -- cynical reason for stockpiling the permits and the land is to bank them for future use when the oil prices will likely be even higher.

A better question, however, is why would President Bush and John McCain and Charlie Crist support offshore drilling and call on Congress to lift the moratorium on it.

The answer is simple: politics.

The rising gasoline prices are a major problem for Republicans in this election. The Bush White House is correctly perceived as being closely aligned with Big Oil and John McCain has promised not only a continuation of the President's policies, but McCain's economic plan includes $4 billion in tax breaks for the oil companies.

The public is angry. They want someone to blame. And right now that anger is directed at the oil companies and their perceived allies. Bush and McCain are trying to find someone else for the public to blame.
The President knows that Congress will not lift the moratorium on drilling off the coast of Florida. Bush and McCain can then deflect criticism from their own policies and blame Congress, and specifically the Democrats, for the pain people are feeling at the pump.

The fact that Charlie Crist is playing along is nevertheless troubling.
The Palm Beach Post did a marvelous job of going back and digging up just a few of Crist's quotes on offshore drilling.

"I oppose any efforts that will allow oil drilling off of Florida's coast." August 26, 2006

"Many think that we have only two options, drill for more oil or face higher energy costs. Leaders look for new alternatives."
August 28, 2006:

And my own personal favorite Charlie Crist quote is from October 2007, when he was asked to describe the issues that were important to him in selecting the next president of the United States.

"The issues that matter to me and the people of our state are the national catastrophic fund, that we get that going," Crist said. "That we protect Florida's precious Everglades, our environment is very important; and that we not have somebody in the White House who thinks we need to drill off the coast of our state."

And yet Charlie Crist is pushing for John McCain, who says he is categorically opposed to creating a national catastrophic fund to help Floridians deal with the high cost of windstorm insurance, who voted against funding for Everglades restoration, and who now says he supports offshore drilling.

The governor's willingness to abandon the very issues he said were important to him shows just how brazen his own political ambitions have become.

Is there anything Charlie Crist won't do to become John McCain's running mate?

One last point on drilling: Every day I hear someone repeat the lie that drilling off the coast of Florida is safe and will not harm the environment. John McCain said these rigs are "safe enough" and cited as proof the notion that hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005 blew through the Gulf of Mexico without any adverse impact on the environment.

"As for offshore drilling, it's safe enough these days that not even Hurricanes Katrina and Rita could cause significant spillage from the battered rigs off the coasts of New Orleans and Houston," McCain said.

Here again are the facts: 

• According to the federal agency that regulates offshore drilling, the Minerals Management Service (MMS), hurricanes Rita and Katrina destroyed 113 oil platforms and damaged 457 pipelines. 
• The MMS reported that the 2005 hurricanes caused 124 spills resulting in 741,000 gallons of petroleum from offshore rigs, platforms, and pipelines being dumped into the Gulf of Mexico. 
• Last year, 3 million gallons of fuel oil were spilled into the Gulf after a double-hulled tanker hit a submerged oil platform that collapsed during Hurricane Rita.

Also, the rigs themselves are an environmental hazard. The Sierra Club,
compiling information from various federal agencies, notes that:

• Routine offshore drilling operations dump thousands of pounds of "drilling muds" (containing heavy metals like cadmium, chromium, arsenic, and lead) into the Gulf of Mexico. The routine pollution can cause severe disruption to marine environments and health and reproductive problems for marine mammals and fish species. 
• A single exploratory well dumps approximately 25,000 tons of toxic metals into the ocean. 
• A single production platform can have between 50-100 wells and can discharge 90,000 metric tons of drilling fluids, wastes, and metal cuttings into the ocean. 
• Offshore drilling releases "toxic brines" that are pockets of water that are trapped in the geologic pockets where gas and oil occur. This toxic brine contains NORMS (naturally occurring radioactive materials), cadmium, lead, and benzene. The petroleum industry admits that up to 1.5 million barrels of toxic brine are discharged into the Gulf every day.

The risks of drilling are far too great. As tempting as the idea of drilling may be to some, it is not the answer.

As Charlie Crist said, "Leaders look for new alternatives."  Too bad our governor decided to stop being a leader.

(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

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