United States offshore drilling debate
As of September 2008, President Barack Obama was for limited offshore drilling as part of an extensive energy independence overhaul.
[6] On March 31, 2010, President Obama announced that he was opening new areas in U.S. coastal waters to offshore drilling for gas and oil.
[citation needed] In 2018, a new federal initiative to expand offshore drilling suddenly excluded Florida, but although this would be favored by Floridians, concerns remained about the basis for that apparently arbitrary exception being merely politically motivated and tentative.
[11][failed verification] In 2023, President Biden signed a Memorandum of March 13, 2023 prohibiting oil and gas leasing in certain arctic areas of the Outer Continental Shelf (Withdrawal of Certain Areas off the United States Arctic Coast of the Outer Continental Shelf from Oil or Gas Leasing).
[13] A common argument in favor of offshore drilling is it reduces United States dependency on imported oil.
of Energy analyzed the effect of lifting the ban on oil and gas leasing on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts and the eastern Gulf of Mexico.
"[15] The Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental advocacy group, estimated that with increased offshore leasing and drilling, the price of oil would only drop about 3–4 cents in 15 to 20 years.
In 2005, U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld stated that offshore drilling would disrupt military training and weapons testing, if done in an area of the Gulf of Mexico along the coast of Florida.
On April 20, 2010, an underwater blowout and subsequent explosion and fire destroyed the Deepwater Horizon rig owned by Transocean Ltd. and operating in the Gulf of Mexico under lease to energy giant BP, resulting in the largest oil spill in United States history.
As of 2010, the federal Minerals Management Service had given permission to BP and dozens of other oil companies to drill in the Gulf of Mexico without first getting required permits that assesses threats to endangered species.
These included the sperm whale, gulf sturgeon, manatee and five kinds of sea turtles, in addition to the surrounding water and habitats that were damaged.
The Pew Research Center, which had documented a large and sharp drop in support for allowing more offshore drilling following the Deepwater Horizon spill in 2010 (down to 44% in favor versus 52% against), found that by March 2012, support for increased offshore drilling had returned to its pre-Deepwater Horizon level, with 65% in favor versus 31% against.
[25] A series of CNN polls 2008-2011 showed that support for increased offshore drilling dropped from 75% before the Deepwater Horizon spill to 57% shortly after.
[26] The Gallup organization found 50% support for increased offshore drilling in May 2010, a month after the Deepwater Horizon explosion.
