Offshore Drilling Oil: Developing An Energy Plan

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Offshore Drilling
Introduction
Jacqueline Savitz says that “if the president tasked a commission with developing an energy plan that would allow us to forgo addition through clean energy, efficiency and conservation, we wouldn’t need to take a huge risk that we take every time we permit drilling. When you look at the cost and try to compare it to the benefits to the American people, it is very difficult to justify drilling offshore” (Billitteri 9). When business companies use this technology, they increase water and air pollution in the environment, but they don’t care about what it causes in our environment. They just want to make a lot of money. This technology is very risky for our environment and causes disasters. Large oil companies destroy the US environment. So, to prevent damage to the environment, business strategies must include strict regulations.
Fixing major flaws in the management and regulation of oil exploration requires technical experience and training, but the Minerals Management Service (MMS) was only formed as an agency that not only lacked trained personnel, but also the resources necessary to execute its mandate. There should be trained staff in petroleum engineering that will ensure that offshore oil drilling is conducted in an environmentally sustainable and safe manner. MMS was formed as a new agency, but retained the same staff, who lacked the needed technical knowhow. It was clear that by 2011, accident rates arising from offshore drilling were several folds higher in the US compared to those that happened in the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia (Mace). This was attributed to the effective rules that had been enacted following such accidents. Following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, MMS was diffused into parts and separating the department for revenue collection from the oversight office to address the problem of conflict of interest. However, such a strategy has maimed its activities as personnel training, access to technology and other regulation apparatus are poorly served.
Apart from business strategies among the players in offshore oil drilling, strict regulations, such as those in countries such as the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia need to be enacted. For instance, the UK offshore gas and oil industry is undergoing rapid changes. While it is a mature industry, the UK waters hold gas and oil reserves equivalent to those extracted since the beginning of 1973, making it a necessity to have sophisticated technologies to extract oil such as offshore drilling. It can be conceived that the accident rates have significantly improved since 1988 when the country experienced the Piper Alpha disaster. However, since the nation is sensitive to ensuring safe workplaces and sustainable environment, strict regulations have been maintained by bodies such as the Health Safety Executive which has a regulatory role in ensuring the offshore gas and oil industry is sustainable (HSE.gov.uk). In Canada, the Canada Oil and Gas Operations Act controls all the activities that involve the exploration, production, manufacturing and transporting gas and oil in areas under the federal government such as the contine...