After the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico during April of last year, President Obama issued a moratorium on permits to drill new deepwater wells. As prices have risen at the gas pump to over $4.00 and the job market continues to suffer, Obama reversed his decision this past May and now says that the United States will seek to expand domestic oil production, including in the Gulf, in an attempt to reduce dependence on imported oil and bring down fuel prices.

Deep Sea Drilling Destroys Natural Beauties

by Mandy Stussman ‘14

On April 20 last year, a BP oil well deep in the Gulf of Mexico cracked and erupted, releasing more than 210 million gallons of oil into a delicate ecosystem. The spill destroyed nearly 90,000 square miles of habitats, seeping oil into flourishing coral reefs. The oil saturated and killed approximately 5,000 animals initially, and hundreds more died daily due to residual oil. Along the coast lay some 150 bodies of dolphins, an astonishingly intelligent but endangered species. This spill, the worst in history, forever altered an ocean paradise.

After the oil spill, President Obama correctly banned deep sea drilling in the eastern Gulf of Mexico for seven years. Despite the tragedy that still haunts the region, Obama reversed his decision on May 14 and now permits drilling in the eastern Gulf. His decision was made in an effort to counteract growing gas prices; however, killing irreplaceable marine life is not the solution to our energy conflict. Drilling in the eastern gulf only provides the United States with 1.8 percent of the country’s oil. Exploration in the eastern Gulf is dangerous and risky, and is only expected to decrease gas prices by a few cents per gallon.

The spill last April destroyed commercial marine species as well, including shrimps, crabs and oysters, costing $273 million, or 98 percent of Louisiana’s seafood in revenue. The spill also took the jobs of nearly 200,000 marine workers and cost $11 billion dollars in tourist-based incomes. The economies in states surrounding the gulf plummeted. Now as drilling resumes, there is no guarantee such a tragedy will not happen again.

The BP oil spill was extremely devastating, but even in the absence of a nationally known event environments are still damaged by offshore drilling. Ocean rigs spill and leak oil daily and chemicals used to operate rigs pollute nearby habitats. By simply maintaining wells deep in the ocean, we are slowly sucking life from a haven that once prospered.

To save the beauties that lie deep within the Gulf of Mexico, the United States should no longer drill there at all. Reinstating Obama’s seven year ban would be the first of many steps to remove all oil wells in the gulf, and eventually the world. The solution is not to keep drilling until the world is completely out of oil. The solution is not to demolish every beauty found in the ocean for our own selfish gain. The solution is to invest in something promising, something that will never run out, something that could reduce our dependence on oil. The solution is alternative energy.

A far-fetched idea that could be our future. A natural source of energy without toxic emissions could power our society. Deep sea drilling or oil from the Middle East would no longer be needed. The change would be gradual, but with the removal of oil wells from the gulf and other areas and an increase in funding for alternative research, eventually the world could survive, and dolphins, along with millions of other irreplaceable species, could survive with it.