Is the Risk Worth the Reward?

The world appears to be in the midst of both an economic and environmental crisis. Between these two lurking giants, the debate over the expansion of oil drilling lies. It appears that the decision to enlarge, or reduce the expansion of oil drilling will inevitably assist one of the problems, but greatly increase the harm of the others. When deciding if offshore oil drilling in the US should be increased, one must consider the potential benefits towards economics, and the potential hazards towards the environment.

The US economy is in a volatile state. A completely unpredictable market and a 9 percent unemployment rate are making the idea of expanding oil drilling extremely attractive. Offshore oil drilling could tremendously help the economy in multiple ways. One way it could help the economic problem is that it could give thousands of unemployed citizens a job and a source of income. With these additional people obtaining jobs, and making money, the money they spend at businesses and stores could benefit those businesses, and in turn those businesses could hire more people too. Another way oil expansion could help the economy is that with the additional oil in the country, oil prices would most likely go down. With lower oil prices, people would now be able to spend less revenue on gas, and spend their money in other places and businesses. Companies would also benefit because now with less money being spent on their delivery trucks, and tractor trailers, more money could be spent on products and hiring additional people. Although these benefits are a very likely outcome, there are some potential environmental problems.

          In 2010 an underwater oil valve in the Gulf of Mexico controlled by the company BP broke, pouring out millions upon millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf. With BP’s slow response time and ineffective solutions, the wildlife of the Gulf of Mexico was greatly impacted. Science Daily is a website that provides articles about modern day science related news. According to Science Daily’s article “One YearLater, Oil Spill’s Impact On Gulf Not Fully Understood” even an entire year after the oil spill the local bird population is still affected, “nearly all the young birds and a huge proportion of the adults had at least some oil on them.” This oil can cause dangers for the birds such as choking hazards and sickness. Some people hope to expand oil drilling to the Arctic Ocean. People must take the Gulf disaster into perspective when considering about expanding oil drilling to places such as the Arctic or other coastal regions. If an oil valve in the Arctic broke, it could be more devastating than the oil valve in the Gulf, due to the fact that a valve in the Arctic would be further away than a valve in the Gulf, and would most likely take more time to respond to. The additional oil could also damage the world’s global warming concerns. However although these are alarming concerns people must know that these are only possible concerns, and not definite dangers.