After the devastating oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the extraction of deepwater oil will never be the same. This topic has already altered the oil industry and continues to impact the regulations that many companies must follow. The United States Interior Secretary, Ken Salazar, plans to instate new laws for future offshore drilling and to soon release the ban that has been up for the past four months to prevent offshore drilling (Hughes). Salazar believes it will be a challenge to convince the government to lift the ban because the president’s administration does not believe the ban should be removed until all oil companies have agreed to comply with all the new laws involving offshore drilling (Hughes). Due to the extreme turmoil this most recent oil spill has caused, it should be obvious that stricter laws should be out in place and more heavily enforced to help avoid another accident.
Even though the new laws that will be put in place are an extremely important factor in the future of offshore oil drilling, the proponents for the case have their share of important reasons as to why the ban should be lifted as soon as possible. A major reason would be the loss of jobs since offshore drilling has been shut down (Hughes). This industry provides thousands of jobs to United States citizens. They are trying to get the ban lifted by November 30th with the understanding that the companies will be following much stricter guidelines (Hughes). The compromise for this solution would be to open the offshore drilling as soon as possible while seriously enforcing the new laws.
-Ashley Luddy
http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20100929-715409.html?mod=WSJ_Energy_middleHeadlines
This new conflict between the government and the oil companies seems to be setting back all parties involved but especially the oil industry. If this is not resolved soon the effects will begin to start showing up in the losses of profit as well as you mentioned the loss of jobs. I am interested to know what the new stricter laws will be that the government is trying to enforce and do the oil companies have any choice but to agree with these new set of laws.
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