Eastern Carolina's Oil Riches

One of the things that most infuriates me is the determination of Democrats to pick winners and losers in business. Here in North Carolina that determination has led to a bizarre situation. As noted here, the petroleum industry in North Carolina is "predicted" to be one of the major areas for LOSS of jobs in our state. The reason is that the Democrats have banned drilling off our coast. That has killed Eastern North Carolina's future.

This does not make sense. The shape of our borders makes for some great opportunities, as our borders point outward, putting a huge section of the Atlantic petroleum and natural gas fields within our state. We need to reverse that prediction linked above and make petroleum a source of jobs.

A friend who is a high level petroleum drilling industry manager in Louisiana discussed the future and the history of job creation in off shore drilling where he lives. He is a geologist who has always made his living as what he calls a "mud engineer" in petroleum. Petroleum and natural gas drive the Louisiana economy and have changed the state from being a poor one to being a rich one.

His opinion? North Carolina's petroleum and natural gas is deeper than off Louisiana where he works, but that it is probably just as large a field. We need to find out. However the research will not be done unless the petroleum and natural gas industries can make money.

My friend's prediction? Off shore production in North Carolina could bring 100,000 jobs paying $100,000 in a few short years. That huge job growth would fuel an Eastern North Carolina boom that would end our image as the poor part of the state.

The question I have, "Why are we blocking this?" We are a poor region and the natural gas off the coast of North Carolina could dramatically reduce the heating costs for our poor citizens during our cold winters.

I am an environmentalist and I understand the need to be careful. However I cannot resist pointing out that any environmental problems caused by oil spills has always been a short term problem. They are never permanent. The first major spill, Santa Barbara, happened before much of the technology to prevent or recover from a spill was invented. However within a few short years, it was nearly impossible to find evidence of the spill, even with the most sophisticated scientific measuring devices. The damage was not permanent. I lived in California for many years and have walked most of the beaches affected. They are beautiful and natural and have been since right after the spill back in the 60s. We must retain some perspective

That is one aspect of the problem that is ignored by the environmental extremists. We are causing permanent damage to the economy and putting people's lives subservient to a temporary (and merely potential) problem for the environment. I have always been amused by one quote about environmental damage I heard many years ago. "Sure you have to worry about mother nature, but you must never forget that mother nature is a mean bitch!" Nature is tough. Survival requires you to be tough. We have proved that even a small effort at being environmentally friendly goes a long way to assuring the environment can recover and the damage disappears.

It is not like oil spills do not exist in nature. Every single year there is oil seepage at the depths of the oceans that dwarfs the largest oil spills man has ever caused. These "spills" are dealt with by mother nature and we never even notice them.

America today is the most environmentally protected area of the world. That includes Eastern North Carolina.

Eastern North Carolina could retain its natural beauty and still produce huge amounts of oil and natural gas to make our region rich.

It is time we drill.