Drilling should go on in Gulf and other locations

Louisiana state officials are pleading with the Obama administration to lift its temporary ban on oil and gas drilling in the Gulf of Mexico which was put in place after the disastrous BP oil rig explosion and leak about two months ago. Their pleas should not fall on deaf ears.

The oil leak disaster and loss of 11 lives is bad enough for the environment and economy of the Gulf region without compounding the situation and making it worse. The off-shore oil drilling industry is important to the economy of states like Louisiana. Their workers don’t deserve a double whammy of being hit with loss of jobs from the fishing and tourism industries on top of the loss of jobs in the oil industry. Oil drilling is also important to the economy of this entire country because it runs on oil.

State officials liken the government’s response to the oil rig disaster to all airplanes being grounded after one crashes. That doesn’t make any sense at all because accidents do happen. That’s why they are called accidents. Life goes on and we learn from these events. We can’t afford to stop exploring and drilling for oil in the Gulf and we need to expand drilling to previously off-limits places like the Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge area. We’ve seen the complications from drilling a mile below the surface of the water.

One Louisiana Parish president said, “Mr. President, you were looking for someone’s butt to kick. You’re kicking ours.” It’s interesting to note that it was Obama and his Interior Secretary Ken Salazar who made the decision on their own to put a six-month moratorium on off-shore drilling in the wake of the biggest environmental disaster in United States history. Apparently the president has never heard of that old Western saying, “When you get bucked off your horse, you have to climb back on and try again.”

It’s one thing to check and tighten safety regulations on oil rigs. It’s a worse thing to shut down the industry entirely because of this single, unprecedented terrible accident. It’s almost like being afraid to get out of bed in the morning because something bad may happen to you.

Mr. President, it’s time to let the people in the Gulf oil industry dust themselves off and get back on their horses.