Letter to the Editor: Stop Oil Seeps Project a Win-Win for All

http://www.noozhawk.com/noozhawk/article/0718_letter_to_the_editor_stop_oil_seeps_project_a_win_win_for_all/

By Don Regan

After having recently read the Wall Street Journal article regarding offshore oil availability, as relevantly excerpted here below …

It seems to me, that these facts as have been presented and documented by the Journal, and the environmental group Stop Oil Seeps California, that SOS California’s broad constructive approach to both safely and efficiently cleaning up the seeps in and around the Santa Barbara and neighboring area beaches makes wonderful and obvious sense for all the citizens in the Santa Barbara area; Santa Barbara, Ventura and San Luis Obispo counties; our state; and our nation.

SOS California’s stated proposition to provide both immediate energy relief, while safely cleaning the beaches is deserving of serious consideration, and sincere determined efforts to come to a consensus to mutually move forward, as soon as possible into an affordable, safe, renewable self-sustaining energy future. Such a worthy project, with its straightforward renewable and practical financial benefits, is clearly within our reach, in our time, and importantly a win-win for all public policy makers and citizen stakeholders alike.

… “Lifting the offshore-drilling moratorium won’t be a quick fix for high energy prices. Developing the eastern Gulf of Mexico, an idea to which Florida Gov. Charlie Crist recently ended long-standing state opposition, will take close to a decade for leasing, exploring, drilling and building required infrastructure. The industry believes there is mostly natural gas there, and new natural-gas supplies won’t have much impact on gasoline prices.

However, a Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. analyst said in a report there is a lot of offshore crude that can be produced relatively quickly. The problem: It is located off California, where politicians have built careers opposing new drilling.

The Minerals Management Service said that of the estimated 18 billion barrels of oil in off-limits coastal areas, almost 10 billion are off the coast of California.

“California could actually start producing new oil within a year if the moratorium were lifted,” the Sanford C. Bernstein report said, because the oil is under shallow water, it has been explored and there are drilling platforms that have been there since before the moratoria went into effect. …” Click here to read the full Wall Street Journal article.

Don Regan, Ph.D.
Arroyo Grande

http://www.noozhawk.com/noozhawk/article/0718_letter_to_the_editor_stop_oil_seeps_project_a_win_win_for_all/