Argumentative Essay On Offshore Oil

A woman from Pennsylvania turned on her faucet and lit the water on fire with a match. This is a direct result of methane traveling in the pipes due to fracking. People are protesting against fracking because of the damage it causes to the environment and public health. Fracking is favored by energy companies because production is relatively cheap and easy. However, these are not the only considerations. The government should ban fracking because of the negative impact it has on the environment, water contamination, air pollution, and human health.

Offshore drilling could lead to an oil spill which shown from the Gulf of Mexico incident. It can ruin the sea’s wildlife. With the wildlife at stake it can be really hard to fix the problem and most companies result in using corexit which makes the issue worst. This makes the oil sink deep in the ocean, and results in even more of the underwater marine life suffer. With us being fishermen it could kill our businesses because we will not have food to provide with fish being killed from a potential oil spill. Plus the oil drill wouldn’t really do anything for the state of South Carolina, and if it isn’t needed I wouldn’t want something that we don’t want it to have bad odds of affecting our business.

Oil is a very important fossil fuel that is used for various sources of energy. Oil supplies power to industries, fuel for transportation, heat for buildings, and provides raw material for plastics, paints, textiles, and other materials (hybrid cars). To access this fossil fuel, oil drilling is used. Land-based oil drilling became less productive and as the global stipulation for energy increased, technology, law, and geology impacts stepped in and pushed the exploration of oil away from shores (CITE). With its historical background, offshore oil drilling is one of the most important aspects of today’s economy although we are faced with its risks and consequences, such as the BP Deepwater Horizon explosion of the Gulf of Mexico.

Oil drilling is a phenomenon that’s been since the late 1850’s, and makes the oil as cheap as fifty dollars a barrel for consumers all around the world. Oil drilling first began in 1859 when George Bissell and Edwin L. made the first successful drilling rig on a well in Titusville, Pennsylvania. Offshore drilling began in the late 1800’s and by 1897 the first offshore well was producing oil. When citizens think of offshore drilling the first thing that usually comes into mind is the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill that began on April 20, 2010. It killed 11 workers, and at least four species of marine animals were killed off from its effects (Offshore Drilling). Offshore drilling is a hazardous way to mine oil, and even though it may seem to

As Josh Fox, an American film writer and environmental activist, once said, "The problem is that everywhere the oil drilling industry goes, a trail of water contamination, air pollution, health concerns, and betrayal of basic American civic and community values follows." In making this comment, Fox argues that the expansion of the oil drilling industry should be limited because it presents many risks to the environment and the quality of life for countless people. The expansion of oil drilling is a major ethical dilemma in modern times as the government is creating reserves in which oil drilling companies are not allowed to explore. Oil exploration is needed for the industry to continue supplying the country with fuel, and gas prices will rise as the resources diminish. However, opening up regions to oil drilling will have detrimental effects on the environment and may put the future of humanity in danger because the use of oil is not sustainable. In debating this topic, it is important to consider the effects on the common good and the protection of the environment. Rather than opening federally reserved lands and waters to oil drilling, the United

The operation of the rig is also associated with the production of toxic wastes and many other long lasting forms of pollution. The drilling muds contain mercury, lead and cadmium that may accumulate inside the bodies of marine organisms. In addition, some traces of this pollution may be found in seafood that people consume, therefore, creates serious health consequences for them.

“Since 1975 offshore drilling has had a 99.999 percent safety record”(Horton). While the chances seem very slim for an incident to happen that harms the ecosystem it still happens more than you think. “There will be no less than one spill a year of 1,000 barrels… a spill of 10,000 or more can be expected every three to four years”(Horton). And for the high safety rate of 99.999 percent of success and safety it isn’t as good as it can be. “While the 99.999 percent safety record sounds nice that 0.001 percent can be pretty horrific for people living there”(Horton).

Arguably, the greatest impact of off-shore drilling on the environment is indisputable. There are 3,500 drilling rigs and platforms, 79 of them deep-water wells, in the United States alone (CBSNews). Many of these off-shore rigs are located in the Gulf of Mexico and directly impact these ecosystems with negative impacts ranging from black carbon to blowouts (Oceana). However, larger impacts can be catastrophic such as the 2010 explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig that killed 11 people and destroyed 125 miles of the 400 miles of Louisiana coastline (Bp).

Oil drilling affects thousands of marine animals in their ecosystems and has caused massive damage before. For example, on April 20, 2010, 210 million gallons of oil spilled into the Gulf of Mexico. It is considered the largest accidental marine oil spill in the world and the largest environmental disaster in U.S History. (“Deepwater Horizon.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 06 July 2017. Web. 06 July 2017.) “As the Deepwater Horizon disaster shows, it’s hard to contain and remove oil that is spilling into the ocean.” (Hamalainen, Karina. "DRILLING FOR OIL." Science World Sep 27 2010: 8,12,TE8. ProQuest. Web. 30 June 2017.) This clearly states the known severity of oil spills. Oil in the ocean is hard to clean up, imagine how the animals that live in the affected areas struggle to survive. It stays in the water for

Oil drilling is the process of perforating oil from the earth’s surface. This process can be dangerous. The drilling process can be harmful to nearby animal life. The process used to locate oil waves can be harmful to animal life. When the oil ascends, it brings with it a number of deadly chemicals. The chemicals released can consist of mercury and arsenic. Other substances such as lead have been known to ascend with the oil (Horton, Jennifer, 1).

There are many risks involved in this job which includes fires and drowning. Since the rigs are in the middle of the water, it is difficult to escape in case of an emergency. Offshore drilling also leads to a lot of environmental problems. One of the problem is carbon emissions. High amounts of carbon emission is put into the atmosphere causes by the drill that is used to drill the seabed. This contributes to the global warming problem. Another major problem is oil spill. Oil spills causes a lot of damage to the marine life. It also contaminates the water. All the fishes in the ocean can be contaminated and it can go up the food chain affecting all other organisms

This day and age, oil is what makes the world go around. Without it, people cannot travel, be able to use fuel oils for electricity and heating, there would not be asphalt roads, and also there would not be chemicals used to make plastics, or other synthetic materials that humans use every day. Oil is a useful resource but the ways that are used to obtain it are not very appealing. One way it is obtained is by offshore drilling. According to an article on WiseGeek.com, “What is Offshore Oil Drilling?” offshore drilling “is an oil extraction technique which allows oil companies to access deposits of oil buried under the ocean floor.” Underneath all that, there are problems, the environment is being hurt. Offshore oil drilling may be useful; but the effects of it are bad for life on earth.

It is the same drilling we have done over the course of history and still to this date that has affected the environment. Petroleum and natural gas have been used for over 5000 years, in all parts of the world, and currently its use is steadily growing, causing new effects on our planet. Although there is an abundant amount of oil and gas within the core of our planet beneath major sources of water, eventually they will become scarce and overused, causing us to search for other means in other geographical territories, including on land. The more we discover about these sources of energy the better we understand them and eventually the more efficient we can be at conserving them (Estefani, 2013).

The environmental risks associated with offshore completions are similar to other oil and gas well drilling operations. Extemporaneous releases of hydrocarbons to the environment can occur during drilling or completion of the well. Macondo was not the first oil spill accident in offshore platforms, and will not be the last either. Oil spill is the main reason of environmental hazard with the flow of tons of oil into the sea water degrading marine and wildlife. While oil spilling is a regular phenomenon in the offshore industry (498 blowouts worldwide during 1970-2007), it not only affects the marine ecosystem, but also increases the water depth in the drilling area.

Minimizing the hazards of offshore drilling has always been an area of concern. Other than looking at the dangerous hazards, another approach to minimize danger is to try and minimize the vulnerability of the system. Oil and different contaminations are scattered more quickly in aquatic environment than onto land, bringing a major ecological disaster. Money related vulnerability is high and more noticed due to the fact that oil organizations need to contribute extensive totals of cash to develop these offshore assets and on the grounds as different commercial enterprises also rely upon the sea environment, for example, fishing and tourism.