Today our country relies on a lot of foreign oil. To some people that is ok because of drilling for oil near our home is dangerous for the environment. What people don’t know is that third world resource rich countries are getting taken advantage of, and it is putting millions of people far below the poverty line. Children are starving and dying because parents can’t support them. Their dictators: ruling with an iron fist, sharing none of the oil profits with the people of their own nation. And guess what? Whether we know it or not, every American supports this poverty in third world countries by buying fuel and paying taxes. If we start drilling for our own oil, and follow all of the safety procedures, we can avoid oil spills and put a stop to some of the corruption that is happening in third world, resource rich countries.
People think that drilling for oil causes most spills, but this is false. According to book “Offshore Drilling”, the transportation of oil results in almost all of oil spills. Also, of the almost 3,700 oil platforms in the Gulf of Mexico, roughly 3,200 lie off the Louisiana Coast, yet Louisiana produces one third of all America’s commercial fisheries and no major oil spills have ever occurred along its coast.
The production of oil is relatively clean and safe (“Offshore Drilling”). People may argue about the threat it poses to the wildlife around the area where oil production is going on. People see pictures of oil covered animals and it breaks their hearts. The truth is more birds have died by getting fried by landing on power lines or getting their skulls crushed against picture windows in one week opposed to the ones that have perished due to oil spills in the last three decades of oil spills (“Offshore Drilling”). The point of this argument is the wildlife shouldn’t be an issue if certain safety precautions are set in place by our government.
Another big issue with our country is the unemployment rate and the economy. Starting to drill for oil off native shores we will be creating hundred of thousands of jobs and will lower the unemployment rate. Another benefit is for the economy. According to the book “Offshore Drilling”, currently the United States sends $500 billion dollars annually to foreign energy companies, which is a major cause of our huge annual trade deficit and the continuing loss of our manufacturing base. If we start drilling in our own back yard we can hope to cut that number up to two thirds and save our economy some trouble with trade deficits that put our country in major debt and decrease the value of our dollar.
Out of all the countries that symbolize support or fall into the category of Oil-fueled corruption, Equatorial Guinea is by far one of the worst. Equatorial Guinea is a small African country located in the Gulf of Guinea. The country itself is ruled by a life long dictator, and a family clan that funnels all the oil wealth into secret accounts around the world. As oil prices in the recent years have grown at exponential rates, Equatorial Guinea's government profited big. In 2007 the government’s oil revenue reached a record high of $4.8 billion dollars. Where is all this money going? Surely not the people of Equatorial Guinea, it was recorded that over 77 percent of the country's population still lives under the poverty line. Back in America, Florida doesn’t want oil companies drilling off the coast, but whether they know it or not, they are supporting Equatorial Guinea’s poverty and the government’s corruption that goes along with it ("Oil Corruption in Equatorial Guinea").
People pay taxes that help oil companies go into countries like Equatorial Guinea and drill for oil. When a spill happens in a place like Equatorial Guinea much less is done to help contain it. Oil companies play by a whole different set of rules when they are drilling in foreign countries, their governments don’t have the regulations in place like the United States, so when a spill happens the damage could be catastrophic ("Equatorial Guinea, the rich and the poor.") Whether Americans show it or not, people think “What do I care about some third world country in Africa that is being pillaged and its land being raped for its precious resources?” “As long as it is not happening in my back yard I don’t care.”
Problems that come with purchasing foreign oil like trade deficits, third world countries in poverty and many more can help be resolved if we take the time and set precautions to start drilling for some of our own oil around our own coast. It will create jobs and get us out of our trade deficits. We should support drilling for our own oil because it will help put a stop to the people from suffering in countries like Equatorial Guinea.
