Last week, the Department of the Interior released its draft proposal to allow offshore drilling in essentially all U.S. waters, including the Atlantic Ocean. They are doing this because they believe it will unleash the offshore gas potential for the US. The president and his administration are committed to serving the needs of corporate interests, ignoring the impact on everyday Americans. These decisions are clearly designed to benefit Big Oil at the expense of coastal communities.
What is the new offshore drilling plan? The program is called The National Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program and it ,"has been proposed for 2019 through 2024 and would open 90 percent of the nation’s offshore reserves to development. It proposes the largest number of offshore lease sales in U.S. history." However, this is not finalized yet because states and environmental groups are predicted to challenge the new program. Governor Jerry Brown released a join statement saying, "flies in the face of decades of strong opposition on the part of Oregon, Washington and California."
Costal states are outraged and their governors are fighting to kill the proposal all together. However, there is one state that has been promised exemption from the offshore drilling, and that state is Florida. But after the Trump administration made this promise, it left other costal states thinking "what about us?"
Questions:
1. Why do think Trump and his administration would make this proposal if over 50% of Americans are against offshore drilling?
2. Do you think this proposal will end up working out? Or will too many states successfully oppose it?
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3 comments:
1. They don't care what we think. 2. I think eventually states will either stop this in the courts or make it very hard on oil companies to take advantage of these rules by passing laws to make it harder for them to operate (like tariffs on oil from offshore rigs - just an idea). Now let's take a little more time to think about this exemption of Florida from the new policy. There are a lot of reasons that this could have happened and none of them are good. First it could be an attempt by the trump administration to appeal to voters in the largest swing state. Second, Maralago (Trump's ridiculously expensive club) and he could be trying to protect his property. Third, it is generally assumed that Florida governor Rick Scott, who reportedly fought for this exemption, is running for the US Senate against Florida's Democratic senator Bill Nelson, and he could use this deal with the administration as a way to convince people to vote for him. In my mind all of these reasons are corrupt and frankly we should know by now that offshore drilling is a bad idea (remember British Petroleum oil spill?).
1. For the same reason that more than 50% of the country didn't vote for Trump, but we are all still stuck with him. 2. I agree with Will that a lot of states (looking at you California, Washington, Oregon, and possibly Alaska) will make oil drillers lives much harder. I don't really understand why Florida will be exempted. I would like to believe that Trump is concerned about the delicate ecosystems of the Everglades, but that seems extremely unlikely. I think Will might have the better ideas on that issue. The other point I wanted to make is that this proposal does only affect coastal states, and coasts tend to be much more liberal than the interior of the country. Trump's supporters do tend to be in the middle of the country. It is also unsurprising Trump would present this proposal as a major part of his campaign was based on energy independence for America through the utilization of our natural resources, even at the great expense of the environment. Pfft climate change? A myth perpetrated by the Chinese.
1. Like Sam and Will said, Trump doesn't really what his opposers think and does what he wants. 2. Trump is extremely strong headed and I think it will take a lot of convincing to try and get him to not pass his offshore drilling plan. Hopefully the states, especially Oregon, Washington, and California can oppose the plan, but I think it is unlikely that it will work, especially because it seems as though they are far along in the process. Like Sam and Will said, I do think that the coastal states will make it harder for the drillers to operate.
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