Oil Drilling Legislation

Today, the House passed a new legislation that will impose new safeguards for offshore drilling, remove a liability cap for spill damages, and hit energy producers with a new tax to fund conservation measures. It also gave the oil industries a new standard for the blowout preventer, the device that malfunctioned in the oil spill. Being 102 days after the deepwater horizon explosion, my first thought was its about time! But then after further thought, I began to question whether this truly is a good idea.

Firstly, it made me feel somewhat sorry for the energy producing companies that will be affected financially by one rig’s seemingly isolated freak accident that happened to become one of the worst disasters in the country’s history. The legislation removes 75 million dollars worth of liability for spills, and gives them a 2 dollar tax on every barrel produced that will go toward conservation efforts.

These legislatures are absolutely in the best interest for the prevention of future accidents and aim more efforts toward critical environmental conservation and reservation, which I am all for. However, I think the democrats, who proposed and passed this bill may not have foreseen other effects of this action, particularly the fact that this will most surely raise the costs of domestic energy prices, eventually emerging in the public’s energy and gas bills. The American people are unlikely to be on congress’ side for this one. But at the same time, who would disagree that such measures must be taken to ensure the safety of the environment? Like most, I am completely torn when it comes to how I think the government should react to this incident. Such conflicts between what is best for the country and what will make people happy show why it is just so hard to find a balance with these issues. Time will tell if this one may achieve that balance, or open up a completely new set of frustrations.