I would like to begin by saying it sounds like neither of you actually know anything about offshore drilling, the Health, Safety and Environment laws which are mandated on offshore vessels, or even the process or infrastructure of drilling, let alone offshore drilling specifically.

To say the least, do some research on everything regarding the facts, not just what you want to point out.

To conclude, Drilling (at least in civilized parts of the world) is not what you think it is in the sense of a black and white clip from the 1800′s of a ton of oil spewing out of the ground and a bunch of people dancing in it. I can say this because I worked offshore (yes, Galveston, the rest of TX, and LA), so please, unless you truly are a big-mouthed, ignorant child, do the rest of us taxpayers and stakeholders in society a favor and keep your illegitimate *opinions* to yourself. Do some research.

That they’ll use the “there’s evil men in the world…all men can’t be trusted, therefore you have to prepare for the worse ones” excuse for ramping up militarily anytime there’s an opportunity to be hawkish. But will reverse course when talking domestic economics and say, “you have to make it easy for the ultra-wealthy to make a profit so they’ll invest and spend, so’s a little bit of that will ‘trickle down’ (supply side BS) to the working man. Don’t worry you can trust them to look out for the betterment of mankind, the environment, etc,. Men are good”.

So can men be trusted or not?

Just pick a side…you know what ‘um saying?

Many worldwide scientists have been working tirelessly on visionary, exciting, innovative, less-harmful and more efficient approaches to energy solutions, including geothermal. New technologies already exist. Japan has been a leader in solar and Denmark, wind power. In the past, Americans were known worldwide for being innovators. Where are our new ideas, American innovations and inventions? How will this idea help future generations?

In the meantime and in my view, we’d be wise to start asking lots of questions about this oil-drilling idea off the coast of Virginia. These might include: How will Virginians and Virginia taxpayers specifically benefit from this idea? What are the specific risks and potential consequences? What’s the fine print in this lease deal if something goes awry? Who’s going to pay for the monumental cost of drilling, an American oil company–or a foreign oil company? Or would this vast expenditure be a ‘public/private’ partnership deal in which taxpayers wind up paying to benefit the corporation? (For a well-researched, balanced look at corporate welfare, I recommend reading the book, “The Great American Jobs Scam” by Greg LeRoy.) Who would be responsible for paying for the clean-up of inevitable oil spills? Taxpayers? (Remember that Exxon was somehow exonerated from having to pay for the $billions of harm and destruction done by the Valdez, even though Exxon was responsible.) How much of this offshore oil would go to Virginians and American citizens? Or would this be just another product sold on the free market and earmarked for the U.S. military which is the largest oil customer in the world? Or would it go to the highest bidder among foreign customers, in which case, would foreign tankers be frequenting domestic waters off Virginia’s coastline? If so, what might be the implications of this situation and how much will port and coastline security cost Virginians? What about the impact on the Chesapeake Bay? Questions, questions. One definition of wisdom is the contemplation of consequences BEFORE making a decision.