Original chart via GatewayPundit.
Investor’s Business Daily: Drill, Coast Haste.
Uncle Sam bans states from drilling in the Atlantic, Pacific and eastern Gulf mainly to protect the environment. Some 85% of the U.S. coastline is off-limits to energy production — including huge reserves off Florida’s coast, which China is exploiting in Cuban waters.
To change that, a lawmaker is offering a novel idea. Rep. Sue Myrick of the House Energy and Commerce panel wants to let coastal states decide whether drilling is environmentally risky. She has introduced a bill that would give coastal states that want offshore drilling the power to opt out of the Interior Department’s offshore restrictions…
But the bill faces major hurdles. Even if Myrick can get the House panel’s Democrat chair, Rep. John Dingell, to take it up, it would face stiff opposition in the Senate. Florida Sens. Mel Martinez and Bill Nelson have blocked previous attempts to lift the ban on drilling — although Martinez, a Republican, lately has shown signs of softening.
Foes have successfully cloaked their arguments against offshore drilling in eco-apocalypse, claim it will lead to oil spills. Fearing tar-ball-pocked beaches, the tourism industry has joined the greens in lobbying against such bills.
Their fears are unfounded. And politicians concerned about America’s energy security ought to do a better job educating the public with the facts. For example:
• Less than one one-thousandth of a percent (0.001%) of the 7 billion-plus barrels of oil that Washington has allowed to be produced offshore over the past 25 years has been spilled, according to the Interior Department.
• A whopping 63% of petro pollution in North American seas comes not from offshore rigs, but from natural seepage from the sea floor. Source: National Academy of Sciences.
• There hasn’t been a major oil spill from an offshore well since 1969 even though rigs since then have been lashed by Katrina and other major hurricanes.
Today’s drilling operations are safer and cleaner. Offshore operators are subject to at least 17 major permits and must follow 90 sets of federal regulations. Clean beaches can coexist with offshore production. The mammoth reserves can be captured with little risk to the environment.
In fact, the government estimates that 50% of our undiscovered oil lies offshore. It’s time to let states go after it.
National Review Online: Drill, Already!
Sign Newt Gingrich’s petition: Drill Here. Drill Now. Pay Less.