Offshore Oil Rig Question

[Mate Mike]

Great News for the Coast and Ocean!
Congress Defeats Attempt to Open America’s Coasts
The US Congress declared its commitment to protecting America’s pristine beaches and coastlines from dirty oil and gas drilling. 
Members of the US House of Representatives Appropriations Committee voted 39-25 to overwhelmingly defeat an amendment introduced by US Representative John Peterson (R-PA) that would have opened coastlines to natural gas exploration--a move that would have opened the floodgates for both gas and oil drilling up and down our coasts.  Natural gas exploration and drilling have most of the same destructive and polluting impacts as offshore oil activities.
We need to leave polluting, risky offshore drilling behind and focus on readily available and cleaner alternatives.  The real solution to addressing our nation’s energy problems is energy conservation and efficiency. 
The New York and New Jersey coast has been protected from offshore oil and gas activities since 1982.  Citizens and local, state, and federal officials have vehemently opposed drilling and worked to maintain these protections to protect the environmental and coastal economies

  I'm not sure how I feel about this.  In particular

Natural gas exploration and drilling have most of the same destructive and polluting impacts as offshore oil activities.

  This want I don't understand: Everything I read about the rigs in the Northern Gulf of Mexico is positive.  All they talk about is how great the fishing is around these rigs; they act as artificial reefs.  I have never read anything negative about them.. I would think if pollution was a problem the fishermen along the Gulf Coast would be putting up a stink rather then raving about the fishing.  Any thoughts on the subject.

[Luna Sea 5]

no thoughts from here...

[Mate Mike]

That was helpful

[robsrodnreel]

maybe the fishing around the rigs is so good, everyone ignores the pollution?

[ped579]

Maybe when the price of gas goes up to over $5.00 a gallon or more, every one will understand. 

Everyone and his uncle country has wells in the gulf.  Cuba is selling rights to its offshore fields less than 90 miles off our coast and and countries like Russia, China, Denmark, Germany and others are all putting wells down there in the Gulf.

We will become dependant of them in the near future, how does that make you feel?  I for one am for the wells.  They are safe as hurricane Katrina has proven.  Yeah the well platforms were damaged but because they were shut down before the hurricane hitting no pollution occurred.

They followed procedure, and it worked.  We need more wells off our coasts and we need more refineries to keep up with production.  If we don't open our eyes soon our one time enemies will be pulling our purse strings

It is the same with Nuclear Power Plants, here in the states, they are safe I know I worked with Oyster Creek for a long time and have been a trained observer for FEMA for their drills.

We are taking too long to get into the alterante fuel market and now we have to rely on fossil fuels in the short term.  Thus we are having to rely on companies like Lukoil (Russian owned), Shell (run by Nicaragua)

Sorry for the rant but you hit a nerve and I blame the politicians for not taking the time to really find out what is going on.  All they are worried about is getting reelected.  Thew environmental wackos have this country going backwards.

This is my opinion and does not reflect this site, but I really am sick and tired of being dictated to by a group of people that are primarily being run by the Actors Guild, and the has beens of the political world.

Like I said I am sorry for ranting on.  I did my homework, everyone should do theirs. 

 

Paul

[Mate Mike]

ped579 - Thanx for you input.  But I still don't understand the pollution issue.

[Capt. Ed]

Hi Mate Mike,

We will get our shot when they finally OK the Windmills offshore.

I fish the oil rigs off Louisiana. Great fishing and no major spill has occurred. I guess there is a potential but as Paul says, we need to get busy on alternative fuel.

It is predicted that (from an engineering and financial point of view) that new sources of alternative fuel will be more important than the "invention" of the PC. Look at how that has changed all our lives.

The US government (I will not mention parties or people) has been woeful moving to put rules and regulatiosn in place to force big companies to spend on research and development in this area.

I also believe that we do not have enough nuclear power plants. I know the safety and storing of the spent fuel issues but this could help.

Good thread. Makes you think!

Capt. Ed

[Mate Mike]

I wanted to hear from people who knew first hand, so I went to a Louisiana fishing forum and posted this question:

I have a question about the oil rigs off your coast. I live in New Jersey and fish the east coast for most saltwater species available here. A debate has come up locally about placing oil rigs off our coast. Those that are against them are concerned with pollution. All I know about oil rigs is what I read in the fishing magazines and it is all positive. I have never read about any problems with pollution. So I thought what better way to find out the truth is to ask those that live and fish where these rigs are. Do you have any problems with these oil rigs? Thank you for your input.

1st reply - mike, the environmental restrictions and regulations on offshore drilling are tremendous!! now yes accidents do occur!! i was running out of leeville a few years ago and smelled crude oil, i could see the slick!!! i called the coast guard and when i came back through the area about 4 hours later there were booms set up and there was an environmental cleanup crew taking care of the problem!!
the increase in fishing structure will over time out weigh the accidents!! your fishery will be enhanced far above your wildest dreams with the offshore drilling rigs. ed mcintyre
remember we did not inherit these resources from our parents, we are merely borrowing them from our children

2nd reply - I have been working in the oilfield for 20 years and fishing the rigs longer than that. Ed is right the advantages outweigh the risks 10 fold.

I still have an open mind about the subject but I'm starting to lean in favor of having these rigs off the Jersey Shore.  I'm sure that if these rigs were creating a problem in the Gulf of Mexico the news media would be all over them.

[hareball]

isn't there rigs off of the carolinas?

i've seen the shows too, guy can pull up on a rig and catch baitfish then with the fresh bait catch over 9 types of gamefish.

the windmills would be nice.

[Mate Mike]

Here is another response from Louisiana:

"Everyone is correct about the regulations on the oil rigs. Even the left over food that feeds the small bait fish has to be ground down to a certain size before it can go into the water. Mate Mike, I went last year to the Cheasepeake Bay Lighthouse off of Cape Henry, Virginia Beach and was amazed at the amount of boats there every morning. There had to be 25 to 30 boats all after Spadefish or what ever they could catch. I would imagine any rigs along the New Jersey and Virginia coast would increase the fish and fisherman population tremendously. The Lighthouse is built similar to an oil rig and we were doing a dive inspection of the structure and there was smaller fish around every corner. We had to run the boats off to do our diving ops (not happy campers). There was no barnacles stuck to the structure though, may be the colder water. Just the addition of the structures would bring in the smaller fish for hiding from bigger fish. Also the economic impact would be great too. We had to hire a boat from Jersey to do the job, so the supply and tug boat business would go through the roof. And belive me the coonasses are no worse than them dudes on that boat. Couldn't understand a darn word they were saying for the first couple of days."

Based on what I have found, I now am in favor of these rigs.