By Dan Calabrese ——Bio and Archives--January 4, 2018
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When Donald Trump decides to do something, and actually has the authority to do it, he doesn't resort to half-measures. If you believe as we do that domestic energy exploration is crucial to this country's long-term economy and national security, this Trumpian inclination today produced very good news:
The Trump administration will allow new offshore oil and gas drilling in nearly all United States waters, it announced Thursday. The plan would give the energy industry broad access to drilling rights in most parts of the outer continental shelf, including Pacific waters near California, Atlantic waters near Maine and the eastern Gulf of Mexico.
The proposal lifts a ban on drilling, imposed by President Barack Obama in his final days in office, that protected more than 100 million offshore acres along the Arctic and Eastern Seaboard. Such a reversal deals a serious blow to Mr. Obama’s environmental legacy and signals that the Trump administration is nowhere near done unraveling the environmental restrictions of its predecessor in an effort to promote domestic energy production. The drilling plan comes on the heels of a separate proposal to repeal offshore drilling safety regulations that were put in place after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil rig disaster, as well as a decision by Congress to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas drilling. “We’re embarking on a new path for energy dominance in America, particularly on offshore,” Ryan Zinke, the interior secretary, said Thursday as he unveiled the plan. “This is a clear difference between energy weakness and energy dominance. We are going to become the strongest energy superpower.”There is some risk of spills and leaks associated with offshore drilling, and that needs to be taken seriously. Oil companies who cause accidents should be made to pay a steep price, both punitively and for amelioration of whatever damage is caused. But the risk of such spills is no reason not to allow the drilling at all. It's simply too valuable a resource for a country that should have learned by now what a steep price we pay when we rely on other countries to supply our energy needs. The U.S. has already strengthened its standing tremendously in global energy markets since Trump took office. And to be fair, the increase in domestic production started in the final year of the Obama Administration. But what you don't usually hear about that is that all the increase took place on private lands where Obama couldn't find a way to ban it. On federal lands, he refused to grant oil leases, and in offshore areas Obama engaged in massive bans on drilling - particularly in his final year.
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