The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has been dubbed the worst environmental catastrophe in U.S. history, and its economic effects are felt not only in Louisiana, but also closer to home. It was just a couple of months ago that President Obama announced the approval of offshore drilling on Virginia’s coast. Now, after close to 50 days of continuous oil gushing into the gulf, Obama has canceled those plans, and announced a six-month moratorium on deepwater drilling, much to the dismay of Governor Bob McDonnell, who had campaigned on the reliable revenue that drilling offered.
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For Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell, oil means transportation—specifically, 37.5 percent of drilling royalties to fund state transportation projects. Locally, a few folks may be happier with President Obama’s six-month moratorium on drilling. |
On March 31, McDonnell said he would ask for a collection of 37.5 percent of royalties from drilling, just like the states bordering the Gulf. McDonnell planned to use that revenue to fund transportation projects in the Commonwealth, thus aiding a cash-strapped department.
Although McDonnell acknowledges the extent of the environmental disaster by stating that the “accident must lead to necessary improvements in offshore exploration and drilling technology and safety,” he has distanced himself from Obama’s decision to halt plans already in place for Virginia.
“While I respect his decision, and the need for delay and investigation, I do not believe outright cancellation was the only alternative given the fact that this sale was not due to occur until two years from now, and actual drilling would likely take place years after that,” he said in a statement to the press on May 27.
Brandon Collins, a Charlottesville activist, says Obama’s decision was a “wise” one.
“It’s something that should have happened a long time ago,” he tells C-VILLE.
Just like Collins, the Virginia chapter of the Sierra Club applauded the president’s decision. “It’s unfortunate that it took a disaster such as this to finally bring to light just how mistaken it would be to drill off Virginia’s coast,” says Director Glen Besa in a statement.
For Besa, McDonnell’s plan to use drilling revenue to fund transportation projects was “wishful thinking at best,” because it was “highly unlikely that he would have received the money” right away.
What the Sierra Club and Collins suggest is to explore green, alternative sources of energy that will automatically bring in new sources of revenue.
“We have the technology already available to be free of oil and natural gas and nuclear power and coal,” says Collins. “We should have solar power on every building we can put it on. We should have wind farms, and the technology for wind right now is amazing.”
Besa concurs. According to the Sierra Club, offshore wind energy on the Atlantic Coast is an “enormous untapped resource.” In fact, the region that covers nine states stretching from Massachusetts to North Carolina has the ability to produce a yearly average of 330 gigawatts of electric power, close to five times the area’s average demand of 73 gigawatts.
“Governor McDonnell could really make Virginia the energy capital of the east coast by pursuing clean, renewable offshore wind energy and the thousands of jobs this new industry will generate,” says Besa.
The problem is that Virginia isn’t up to speed. “Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware are way ahead and they have jobs to show for it,” he says.
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