Drill Baby Drill?

Last week an oil rig situated 50 miles off the coast of Louisiana near New Orleans and the Mississippi River delta exploded and sank, killing 11 workers. At first, BP said that the oil leaking from the well was insignificant, but new reports have confirmed that it is in fact leaking 210,000 gallons a day. The slick is now roughly the size of Jamaica and growing, and will begin reaching the coast line, including sensitive ecological preserves, by the end of the week.

There are no good solutions to this problem. Geologically, oil deposits are under enormous pressure, and once penetrated the flow cannot be simply stopped. Complicating this problem is the depth of the well, under 5,000 feet of water. All potential engineering solutions like caps or relief wells will take at least two months to put in place.

At the rate the oil is flowing from this hole, the total amount of oil released into the Gulf of Mexico will match the 11 million gallons spilled by the Exxon Valdez disaster within two months. This spill has the potential to be the largest US oil spill in almost 30 years, threatening nearly 40 percent of our nation's wetlands, which are situated along the Louisiana Coast. The only alternative solution is to burn the oil, which, considering the CO2 impact, would be a Pyrrhic at best (no pun intended).

With such intense clamour for offshore drilling to alleviate our nation's energy challenges, this incident is a tragically vivid reminder of the risks. While there is oil available on our coast, we have cleaner, more cost effective solutions on land. America is the Saudi Arabia of energy efficiency. By retrofitting our homes and businesses, we can save more energy than all of our offshore oil could possibly provide us, and in the process we would create new opportunities for American workers. Best of all, energy efficiency is resource we can tap without risking our other vital natural resources.

Drill baby drill? Let's think again.