Savannah Morning News | Ed Edwards | February 23, 2019
The editorial board in an opinion published Feb. 13 expressed their approval with the blocking of drilling off our coast. This is fine but the actual removal of oil from offshore platforms would be minimum of 20 years out, if at all. Beyond seismic testing there might be an exploratory drill site but nothing of significance. It would only be exploratory.
The bottom line is either we do our own exploring or somebody else will. Cuba has already signed an agreement to drill in the Gulf off Florida, south of Louisiana and east of Mexico. Because the site is in international waters, we’ll have no control over any stages of the process. The Chinese will have no qualms about environmental issues or consequences. Cuba, China and the rest of the world aren’t interested in our concerns for our coastline and we’re naive to believe they do. Someone will eventually explore our coastlines and it might as well be us if for no other reason than having control over what, where, when and how.
Read the full op-ed here.