Should the united states stop all new offshore drilling for oil - Personal Statement Example

Should the United s stop all new offshore drilling for oil? Oil is an essential commodity in the world and countries are always looking for new sites to drill oil. Some of these places are along the continental shelf, lakes, inshore waters and inland seas. The method used to drill oil in these places is known as offshore drilling (1). The United States has put in place plans to look for new offshore drilling sites. However, this has been the subject of debate in the world over. Offshore drilling has had fatal effects in the United States hence; I do not support the plan for new offshore drilling (1).

The methane bubble that prompted the Deep Horizon blast is sufficient proof that new and advanced technology has not been effective in preventing fatal accidents in offshore drilling. Although BP has been working to manage the spill more than six billion gallons of oil leaked into the waters of gulf coast. Moreover, this blast led to the death of eleven employees and innocent sea animals (Nelson & Cain, 1). The environment was polluted and this affected even those that were not part of the drilling teams.

For the environment, tourism and fishing sectors, this disaster cost the industries more than 12 billion USD (Nelson & Cain, 1). Life is precious and should be safeguarded at any cost. If the US implements the plan for new offshore drilling, more lives will be endangered and environmental effluence has effects not only to people and animals but also on climate. Nelson and Cain further say that, oil companies have not yet succeeded in developing a way of cleaning up the mess caused by a spill (1).

For example, BP has been using dispersants to control the spills caused in the gulf waters. Some of these chemicals have been banned in countries like the United Kingdom as they are dangerous to human health (1). This means that both the processes of drilling and managing accidents that happen in this sector are dangerous to life. United States should not endanger the lives of her citizens to such a large extent. Although the United States needs oil, opening new areas will not make an impression in long term use.

In the wake of the recession, oil consumption in the US was 7.1 billion barrels a year (1). The country has a small fraction of the world’s crude oil reserves, and despite all its efforts to extract oil the annual domestic production had plunged to around two billion barrels from 3.5 billion barrels, over the last ten years (Nelson & Cain, 1). This means that US has to import oil since the consumption is more than the production. Thus, even with new offshore drilling the oil produced will not cater for the country’s demands.

In conclusion, life is a treasure which is more important than a country’s ambition. As a result, I feel that there is no point of exposing US citizen to the dangers of offshore drilling, which will not add much worth to the country. Work cited Nelson, Hal & Cain, Nicholas. “Should the US cancel plans for offshore drilling?” Free Republic. 28 May 2010. Web. Accessed on 11th October, 2012.