Off Shore Drilling: Worth the Oil or False Hope?

This fiscal year has seen many economic fluctuations on account of the consumption, production and the changes in the prices of oil. Off shore drilling of oil is now the trend as it is comparatively less expensive oil production but it has its own environmental effects. The environment faces many risks because of the off shore drilling of oil.

Off shore drilling is basically the extraction of oil beneath the floor of oil through the fields which are under the ocean. First time this part of technology was started in the year 1887. Now many countries are producing oil in the quantity of billions of gallons with this technology.

Effects of Off Shore Drilling on Environment:

There are many risks to environment which are associated with off shore drilling and these include:
• Discharge of toxins
• Danger for the marine life
• Destruction of the habitat on coasts
• Impact on the livelihood of the coastal residents, etc.

The most important thing related to off shore drilling is that the impact of transporting the oil is far more dangerous than the drilling itself. Transporting the oil through the pipelines is made through covering several hundred miles of the coastal areas and this is resulting into the erosion of coasts and is becoming a danger for the beaches.

Ban on the off shore drilling:

The US government has its right to make the legislation regarding the extraction of the mineral resources and the government had passed the law banning the offshore drilling for the time period of 1981 to the year 2008 because of the risks to the environment, but this time period has ended now. Now the states can issue the license to the oil companies for the offshore drilling and Virginia State has already started giving license.

Impact of Lifting Up the Ban on Environment:

The immediate impact of lifting up the ban from off shore drilling is still not known but there is some psychological impact for sure. This is the general thinking among the citizens that US has more oil resources which can affect negatively. This can make the citizens believe that their country has plenty of oil to become energy independent.

The fact is this that drilling the oil takes a lot of time ranging from five to ten years. So the impact of this will come in the long run.

Offshore drilling must be avoided in order to avoid the environmental risks and to make the earth green.