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Congress to say no to Big Oil.
With gas prices approaching $5 per gallon and a troubled economy, the American public wants action, and here comes the oil industry and its allies arguing that the solution is to open up our coasts to offshore oil drilling. Below are answers to some of the most common questions.
No. Even the Bush administration admits offshore oil drilling will do absolutely nothing to lower gas prices today, tomorrow, or even two decades from now. According to the Energy Information Administration, a branch of the federal Department of Energy, it would take at least a decade to bring new leases into production, and twenty years for them to reach peak production. Even then, the oil would amount to a drop in the bucket on the world market and would have a negligible effect on gas prices.
According to the Department of the Interior, the number of drilling permits on federal lands has doubled in the past five years while the price of gas almost tripled. More drilling does not mean lower prices. In fact, oil and gas companies currently hold leases to 68 million acres of federal land and waters -- an area the size of Nevada -- that are producing nothing. Oil production on these lands could cut U.S. oil imports by more than one-third.
Almost all Americans are affected by high gas prices, and the price of oil has become one of the hottest political issues. Many people want action. The oil industry, with the support of right-wing political forces, are exploiting this concern to push for unfettered and unregulated access to America's coasts, Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and wilderness for drilling. If you read the fine print, even the oil industry concedes that drilling will not lower gas prices significantly in the short term or long term. But they are gambling that, in a crisis, the fine print gets lost.
Data from the Bush administration's Energy Information Administration shows that efficiency measures alone could save far more oil than can be found off our coasts. There are many solutions to our energy crisis, but drilling isn't one of them. By ending subsidies and tax breaks to big oil, we can give tax refunds and low-income energy assistance to hardworking Americans to help offset the rising cost of energy. The Sierra Club supports more efficient vehicles, more transit choices, and sustainable biofuels. Long-term solutions will pull us out of the energy crisis we're in, create jobs, stimulate our economy, and help fight global warming. These solutions include:
Contrary to claims by the oil industry, there is no safe way to drill our coasts. Where there is drilling, there are oil spills. Offshore drilling operations are also vulnerable to storms. The Coast Guard estimates that during Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, roughly 9 million gallons of oil were spilled. And the pipelines, development, and infrastructure that come with drilling scar beaches, disrupt marine life, and undermine coastal tourism and fishing economies. The places Big Oil wants to open to drilling have been deemed so special that Congress and consecutive presidents -- including George Bush, Sr. -- have protected them under an Outer Continental Shelf drilling moratorium since 1981. But in July 2008, President George W. Bush lifted that moratorium, leaving only one layer of protection for our coasts.
First, we need to embrace common-sense ideas like the Senate leadership's Consumer First Energy Act, which would make sure the oil industry is paying its fair share, crack down on speculators, put our economy back on the path to prosperity, help end our dangerous dependence on fossil fuels, and fight global warming. We need to use less oil, which means better fuel economy and a shift toward renewable energy. If we break our addiction to fossil fuels and shift our national policies toward clean energy like wind and solar power and efficiency measures, we can grow our economy and reduce our oil consumption. A serious national commitment to renewable energy could create more than 800,000 new jobs for American workers, and make us more energy independent. Up to Top HOME | Email Signup | About Us | Contact Us | Terms of Use | © 2008 Sierra Club |
Will drilling our coasts for oil lower gas prices?
Shouldn't more leases eventually mean lower prices?
If offshore oil drilling won't save consumers money at the gas pump, why is the Bush administration and other political leaders promoting it?
If we don't drill offshore, how do we address gas prices and our dependence on fossil fuels?
Why is the Sierra Club concerned about offshore drilling? Can it be done in an environmentally responsible way?
How do we achieve true energy independence without drilling off our coasts?