No Offshore Drilling #16
Apologies for being behind on posting these. It’s been a somewhat hectic and brutal time.
I took this last night while alone on the beach with no one in sight. Pelicans skimmed the waves looking for their last fish before the sun set, while the moon rose behind me.
Offshore drilling changes the landscape. Not just physically. It changes the ecology, the balance, the creation. It changes nights like these.
If some problem were really solved, then it might be worth the discussion. But the only problem solved with offshore drilling is that it gives a fatter bottom line to the oil companies by adding those leases as assets. It doesn’t address the question of increased refinery output, which is really more critical than the oil we have, and there are no guarantees that oil drilled here would remain here. Public companies are in bondage to the bottom line. Selling domestic oil at market prices will be their first priority, no matter who the buyer is. Expect China to lead on the buying market, meaning that oil companies will be richer, but oil prices won’t drop significantly, nor will your prices at the pump.
This is a critical issue. Far too many Americans believe that offshore drilling is the instant panacea to high gas and oil prices. In fact, the weak dollar is a far higher cause of inflated oil prices. A better and more effective strategy for easing prices at the pump is to leave the shoreline alone, and focus on shoring up the dollar.