Drill or Not

To Drill or Not to Drill

To drill or not to drill is not a debate that has begun within the last few years; this debate in fact has been

going on for over a decade. This debate occurs due to the lack of oil within the United States, which is used to

provide energy to all the residents of this country. According to the United States Census Bureau (2012), there are

currently 314,194,875 residents of the United States. How many of those 314,194,875 residents receive power from

the countries oil supply is the reason for such a lengthily debate. Seeing as our country is so dependent on oil to

supply our energy, in reality if we ran out of oil what would we do? Would our government leave us without power?

The way the government thinks is this; the quickest solution would be for them to find a place that has oil and start

drilling as fast as possible.

According to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (n.d.), since 2008 there has been 4 major oil spills within the

United States. The most recent oil spill which was one of the most tragic oil spills in United States history was that

in the Gulf of Mexico on April 22th, 2010. While drilling about 50 miles southeast of Venice, Louisiana, the semi-

submersible drilling rig, the Deepwater Horizon exploded and caught fire. More than 700,000 gallons of oil were

inside the Deepwater Horizon rig prior to it sinking; however, it was also determined that oil had been leaking from

damaged pipe lines below the sea.

Instead of focusing on discovering places to drill to feed our demanding oil supply, in my opinion our

country would benefit more from trying to find new methods to provide energy to the Americans. Solar power has

become cheaper now than it ever was, and is considered to be one of the cheapest energizing methods known to

man. Realistically, once the panels are installed solar power is free, so why wouldn’t our government be utilizing

free energy instead of...