To Drill or Not to Drill

To drill or not to drill

Kelly

HUM/111

Audarshia Flagg

To drill or not to drill

This is an interesting subject and hard to understand. There are reasons for supporting both sides to this argument. However, being from Alaska, and maybe being a little biased, the benefits to the economy are just too much to ignore. In Alaska, 35 trillion cubic feet of natural gas has been stranded. Think about that: 35 trillion cubic feet of natural gas stranded over in the National Petroleum Reserve because there is no pipeline available to bring it to market over here (Rahall, 2008). Elsewhere, there are 68 million acres of land onshore and offshore in the Outer Continental Shelf in the Lower 48 under oil and gas leases that are not producing. They may be subject to speculation. They may be purely being warehoused. We don't know (Rahall, 2008). These are some powerful numbers to be arguing with. With the abundance of untapped oil and natural gas that are out there it would seem that we should at least get started making the economy better and having less dependency on other countries for oil.

However, this is not a one sided issue. There are many opportunities the United States should not pass up. It is much better for the environment to go green. Also, companies that are going green are doing well. As long as that is happening, the march toward going green should go on. According to Marie Surma Manka, a senior account executive with Minnesota-based Tunheim Fartners, “companies that are doing the best are those that are making life more efficient”. If the United States is just looking at environmental issues it should stick with just going green. There are many advantages to going green. Going green creates jobs, uses fewer resources, and helps with keeping our environment clean. The push towards going green makes sense.

After looking at all of the issues, I think that it should be a multi-pronged approach. I do not think it wise to rely solely on one side or the other....