( - promoted by Teddy Goodson)
"Drill, baby, drill!" is a significant part of Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob McDonnell's much touted Jobs Program, and even of his transportation plans, since it is Mr. McDonnell's claim that drilling for oil off Virginia Beach-Hampton Roads will create jobs in Virginia, and royalties from such drilling will help to fund transportation. This fits right in with the national Republican Party's insistence that the US can solve its energy crisis by accessing its own reserves of petroleum wherever found, even in national parks, and which casually dismisses objections from environmentalists worried about global warming fueled in part by the burning of fossil fuels ("it's a hoax") and more specific fears of toxic oil spills ("modern drilling rigs don't have oil spills"). McDonnell makes it all sound so easy, so effortless, and it even makes money ----- why, kudos to McDonnell.
Wait a minute, here's new information: Australia is right now struggling with a massive oil spill in the Sea of Timor off its northern coast, a spill which, as of September 3rd covered 9,000 square miles, larger than the state of Vermont, and still growing. The leaking oil rig is one of the new ones, the well was drilled in 2007. So much for no-leak drilling. Using satellite imagery of the Australian spill and computer graphics, the Sierra Club has created a diagram showing where a similar oil spill would impact Virginia's coast if it occurred in Lease Area 220 off Hampton Roads. This is the lease area presently slated for off shore drilling. http://hrsierraclub.org/VASkyT... |
| Oil company estimates are that 400 barrels of petroleum per day are leaking in Australia, amounting to well over 750,000 gallons since the blowout on 21 August. Other estimates, based on actual oil flows recorded from nearby wells, run at 3,000 barrels per day, which means that over 6 million gallons may have poured out, forming an ugly, toxic blanket spreading further each day. For comparison, the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Prince William Sound, Alaska, totaled 11 million gallons in 1989. While this image does not take into consideration local winds and currents, it gives you an idea of the potential in Virginia. SkyTruth produces satellite images and digital mapping, and is recognized for its mapping of oil spills in the Gulf of Mexico after Katrina (see SkyTruth.org).
As diagramed, an oil spill in the proposed field off Hampton Roads could easily shut down Virginia's coastal tourism and fisheries industries, with its impact reaching from the coast of Virginia Beach-Hampton Roads as far south as Nags Head, and have a devastating effect on Virginia's economy. Glen Besa, Director of the Virginia Chapter of the Sierra Club, pointed out that
"All it takes is one spill to virtually shut down Virginia's coastal economy, both tourism and fisheries, for years. Oil is still disrupting the natural environment in Prince William Sound 20 years after the Exxon Valdez spill."
Virginia's commercial and recreational fishing industry generated a total of $1.23 billion and 13,015 jobs for the economy of Virginia. Last year, tourism in Virginia Beach alone generated over $1.5 billion in revenue and almost 12,000 jobs. Even the rosiest estimates of job creation by drilling off Virginia's coast cannot outpace the economic contribution of Virginia's coastal tourism and fisheries industries---- and there is no guarantee that any future oil jobs will go to local Virginians anyway. Why exchange 25,015 certain jobs possibly lost to a toxic spill for some maybe future jobs creating the toxic spill?
Surprisingly, there are coral reefs in the offshore Norfolk and Washington ocean canyons, and these reefs harbor economically valuable ecosystems which could be utterly devastated by an oil spill, not to mention the numerous endangered species also found off Hampton Roads. All this would be at risk as well if drilling begins in the designated Virginia areas.
Bob McDonnell's grand proposal to drill for oil to create jobs and royalties, and thus solve unemployment and budget shortfalls, begins to look rather unlikely, especially when you realize how long (years) it actually takes to bring an underwater oil field into production. The jobs are questionable, job loss rather than creation is quite possible, and there is no guarantee that the federal government will share any oil royalties with Virginia, so there goes one of McDonnell's transportation funding mechanisms.
Then there is the US Navy, which not only has a major base in Norfolk but utilizes for training the very offshore area subject to drilling. The Navy has indicated it would prefer not to run through a maze of oil rigs to get to its base. It's not too far fetched to ask: what happens if the Navy decides to move many of its operations to, say, Mayport in Florida? As a matter of fact, owners of commercial vessels approaching the port of Newport News do not like the idea, either; collisions with oil rigs is another possible problem (thus creating an oil spill).
It all sounded like such a good idea in the beginning, but when examined in the light of day Bob McDonnell's plans become, well, impractical: time lag until the oil begins flowing, iffy jobs, iffy royalties, adverse environmental impacts, annoyed major local employer (US Navy)....
So, where's the beef in your drill, baby drill hamburger, Mr. McDonnell?
Based primarily on information from
Eileen Levandoski, Hampton Roads Organizer, Sierra Club, 5 October 2009
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