To Drill or Not to Drill - Critical and Creative Thinking

To Drill or Not to Drill

Critical and Creative Thinking

As gas prices rise again toward record levels we as Americans should ask ourselves, how can we drill for more oil on the domestic front and still protect the environment. The BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010 was the worst in American history (totaling 4.9 million barrels) (Hoch, 2010). At the time environmentalists were calling for a moratorium on any kind of domestic drilling because of the environmental impact it may have. Meanwhile a year later most Americans supported drilling to curve our dependency on foreign oil. In a poll conducted by CNN in April, 2011one year after the spill and way before the recent rise in gas prices, 69 percent of Americans supported an increase in offshore oil drilling. These are the same levels seen by pollsters back in the summer of 2008. With all of this controversy over whether to drill or not to drill I am for more drilling for oil not only offshore, but also in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). Only it has to be done using the latest technology with safety measures in place to help minimize the impact to the environment.  Trying to appease everyone on this issue is going to be impossible.

             From the environmental extremist to the extreme capitalist there has to be a happy medium. “Informed rational decisions can be reached through the understanding of how complex technological systems can impact the environment, our economy, our politics, and ultimately our culture” (Baird, 2008). There is no truer statement made about how people on both sides of the issue can be educated to hit a middle ground that can satisfy everyone. The problem is people on the extremes of this issue have the habits that are interfering with clear thinking. I consider myself a moderate where I can look at both sides of an issue with fairness and an open-mind to come up with the best solution. Yes, a company is in business to make money and the oil companies’ profits are in the billions, but the oil companies are also some of the biggest investors in alternative fuel sources (Baird, 2008). When companies have to invest billions of dollars to construct a platform and drill for oil they expect to get a return on their investment (Phillips, Margolis, 2010).      

              Unfortunately at this point in our countries history we need oil to make this country run. Yes, I believe we have come a long way in finding alternatives to oil, but we are not there yet. Bio-diesel, natural gas, hydrogen, and electric are some of the alternatives companies are working on, but oil is still the number one source to power our vehicles. In this author’s opinion, by using the latest technology in finding different ways to drill safer wells with minimizing the impact to the environment is the best way for the people of this country to come to an agreement on the energy direction we should take over the next fifty years.