When you're a hammer, everything looks like a nail.
That, in essence, is the problem with the nation's energy strategy under President Bush and the 109th Congress.
Bush is, somewhat famously, an oilman. Congress is run by politicians
who are committed to expanding domestic energy production. Together,
they're on an ultimately futile quest to have the United States drill
its way to energy independence.
An example of this single-mindedness is a flawed bill just passed by
the U.S. House of Representatives that would suspend a 25-year
moratorium on drilling for oil and natural gas in offshore waters. The
bill has the potential to sharply increase drilling by offering to dish
a hefty chunk of federal royalties to the states.
Fortunately, the bill's prospects appear doomed in the Senate.
The ban was spurred, in part, by a sharp fight over efforts to drill up
the Georges Bank, a large, flat-topped seamount that defines the
eastern edge of the Gulf of Maine. Until it was fished out, Georges
Bank served up a prodigious lode of cod and other groundfish. New
England's fishing fleet is counting on it doing so again.
Federal officials estimate the North Atlantic , including the Georges
Bank, hold just 8 percent of the nation's offshore hydrocarbon
reserves. Yet the high prices currently commanded by natural gas and
oil have emboldened many energy speculators to aggressively explore and
develop once-unattractive energy plays.
Under the House bill, the drilling moratorium would remain to 50 miles
offshore unless a state petitioned the Interior Department to permit
exploration.
Waters between 50 and 100 miles, by contrast, would be opened unless
states successfully petition Interior officials every five years to opt
out.
Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Calif., who sponsored the offshore drilling bill,
claimed it was the first major step in producing domestic energy in
almost 30 years. Not true. Under the current administration, tens of
thousands of natural gas wells have sprouted across the intermountain
West, turning vast swaths of important wildlife habitat into a national
energy sacrifice zone.
The United States cannot afford to let that happen to its oceans.
What's needed - in addition to a true national conservation ethic and
greatly increased research in alternative fuels - is a more targeted
approach to the development of our offshore mineral resources.
A blanket invitation to drill the ocean from Maine to Alaska is not the way to go.
Copyright © 2006 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc.
