Senate Leader Marc Basnight said he and House Speaker Joe Hackney will appoint a commission to study the potential benefits and risks of drilling for oil off the coast of North Carolina.
The legislature has no power to stop the federal government from authorizing offshore exploration, and federal officials have asked for public comment on drilling off the coast of Virginia.
Basnight, a Manteo Democrat, said he strongly opposes drilling, because he said it would provide a relative pittance of oil while risking damaging or destroying the costal ecosystem and economy.
"If the study were to come back and say we have this incredible find and it is larger than anything man has seen, I'd have to look at that," Basnight said.
Basnight said the study would cost as much as $100,000 and take a year or more. The commission would include lawmakers and experts from the state's universities who would study how much oil is off the coast and what would happen if oil companies began drilling for it. Meanwhile, the state has already funded a study at UNC-Chapel Hill to investigate producing wind-powered energy off the coast. Basnight said the two studies may help convince people that drilling — a popular idea for some during national and local elections — may not be the best course of action.
Pat McCrory, the Charlotte Mayor who ran as a Republican for governor, supported drilling and the jobs he said it would create. Gov.-elect Beverly Perdue, a Democrat, said she would favor a study of the issue.
State Republican Party chairwoman Linda Daves said the study would be a waste of money.
"If Marc Basnight and Democrats in Raleigh intend to commission a $100,000 study with the results they want already in mind, then don't bother. Take the money and refund it to taxpayers so they can pay their home heating bills this winter, but stop wasting our money on meaningless studies with predetermined outcomes," Daves said in a news release. "Here is a novel concept for the Democrat leadership in Raleigh: Listen to the people! The people of North Carolina overwhelmingly support offshore drilling as one means among many to modernize our energy economy and move us toward a stronger, more secure future."
Basnight told reporters that he doesn't want the study to help support his point of view, but to gather facts on what drilling would and would not do.
In the late 1980s, Mobile and Chevron began pursuing drilling off the coast. What enthusiasm there was for the effort dissipated when it became clear that the state would not see any royalties from the oil, Basnight said.
Update: Post includes comment from Republican Party head.
Comments
Oh, I want to go
November 21, 2008 - 11:41pm — scharrison"Maybe scharrison doesn't want to go ?"
But I want to go the right way. In addition to being (in my opinion) a poisonous operation, offshore drilling is expensive: it costs about $60 per barrel to extract. What we need to be focusing our resources on is biofuels. And I'm not talking about corn or soybeans, either. Two things: cellulosic biomass and algal biomass.
We can (and do) already produce ethanol from restaurant waste (animal fat), but there's really not that much to be had. What if we could make ethanol from about 2/3 of the garbage we're sticking into landfills? Guess what, we can. Did you know you can actually make fuel out of old tires? Yep. But we need to refine the methodology to make it more cost-efficient. Reusing 2/3 of our landfill waste to fuel our vehicles is smart and will pay many dividends.
As far as algae is concerned, it is the only possible "crop" that could be cultivated in anywhere near the volume we would need to replace our foreign petroleum imports. Algae can double its mass in a 24 hour period, it can be incubated in grey water (toilet flush), it sucks up a bunch of Co2 during its life cycle, and it's an extremely "rich" source to make ethanol from.
North Carolina can (and should) do both of these things. We can clean ourselves up and make a ton of money doing it. That's the future we need to head towards, but we have to want it.
Re: Legislature to order study on drilling
November 21, 2008 - 11:07pm — scharrison"Drilling responsibly is safe,clean,will provide jobs, increased tax revenues, and reduce dependency on foreign oil."
I'm not really sure what you mean by "safe", unless you're talking about safety measures required of rig workers. But "clean" is a relative and subjective term. Offshore drilling uses similar techniques used in oil shale extraction, which means pumping funky toxic water into the ground (ocean floor) to percolate the oil up, and that stuff along with petroleum leaks all over the general area of the operation, messing up the benthic ecosystem. I don't care if it is happening "way out there" and not washing up on the beach, the damage is being done.
As for the other things you mentioned:
http://www.ncsu.edu/iei/newsroom/2008/10/dyk.php
Rhetoric: Offshore drilling will lower our dependence on foreign oil.
Reality: The production of an extra 160,000 barrels of oil a day domestically as a result of drilling offshore would only replace 2% of our current imports from overseas, which now run at 14 million barrels per day.
Rhetoric: Offshore drilling will provide jobs to North Carolina.
Reality: The development of offshore oil and gas fields will provide jobs, but North Carolinians will probably not get most of them.
Rhetoric: North Carolina’s state government will gain millions of dollars in royalties or taxes.
Reality: The Baltimore Canyon, an offshore formation that contains oil and gas, is located more than 20 miles from the coast. Royalty payments in this area are subject to the control of the federal government. In other parts of the country (for example, the Gulf of Mexico), states have shared in hundreds of millions of dollars of royalty payments. However, this is an area with much larger, mature fields. The federal government has often made concessions on royalties in order to encourage exploration, and has a history of weak management. Furthermore, in the years ahead the Federal government will face very significant financial constraints. While increased state revenues in the years ahead are a possibility, they should probably not be relied on for our fiscal future.
Re: Legislature to order study on drilling
November 21, 2008 - 9:17pm — jacktheriviterWhat scharrison neglected to mention with the destruction of the 110 oil platforms was that only one was built after the current standards were established(1988); and,
the next paragraph,"..no loss of life or significant oil spills." !!
Drilling responsibly is safe,clean,will provide jobs, increased tax revenues, and reduce dependency on foreign oil. While we transition to better energy sources we need oil, and natural gas, to keep us going.
Maybe scharrison doesn't want to go ?
Re: Legislature to order study on drilling
November 21, 2008 - 6:33pm — scharrisonWhat Linda Daves failed to mention is that public opinion on offshore drilling is the result of a (failed) attempt by Republicans to generate an issue they could use to win elections. She also failed to mention that their "manufactured" issue was based on lies about reducing the cost of gas at the pump, and about the environmental impact of offshore drilling, including the potential for hurricane-caused damage to rigs and the associated spills/pollution from such. I've heard the "No major damage was caused by Katrina and Rita" meme repeated endlessly by misinformed citizens, when in fact over 110 platforms were destroyed from these storms.
Of course she doesn't want any studies being performed, because it will reveal just how idiotic and deceitful their campaign tactics were.
Re: Legislature to order study on drilling
November 21, 2008 - 5:46pm — rwmullerActually the state has considerable impact on offshore drilling. Federal actions must be consistent with the state's coastal policy. Currently coastal polity opposes offshore drilling. Either the Coastal Resources Commission would have to change its policies or the feds would have to overrule the state's concerns. Lifting the federal ban on drilling does necessarily mean drilling would begin of NC. Virginia changed its coastal policy on offshore drilling last year. That change has allowed the MMS to begin the leasing process.