Drill For Guarantees, Then Maybe For Oil
In their haste to open Virginia’s coast to the petroleum industry, state leaders are trying to rush into a deal woefully short on specifics.
Drilling for oil in the Atlantic off Virginia Beach is one thing. Making a bad bargain is another.
You’d think Virginia’s leaders would realize the difference.
Instead, the state’s most prominent politicians are pushing anew for the federal government to hurry a process that could result in platforms off our coast and oil and gas facilities on our shore.
In exchange for inviting drilling at the Outer Continental Shelf, Virginians would get only a small fraction of what they are due, if anything at all. Worse, we’re likely to lose much in the process, including our ability to negotiate a better deal.
Gov. Bob McDonnell and Sens. Mark Warner and Jim Webb have sent letters asking the U.S. Department of Interior to speed up the leasing process that would open Virginia’s offshore territory as soon as next year.
Despite assurances from Richmond and from Capitol Hill, drilling is unlikely to pay for even a single lane of road or any other state purpose. There is no mechanism – and no serious prospects for one – that would bring royalties to Virginia. Worse, the maps used to allocate offshore territory would cheat Virginia out of royalties if any existed.
The governor has said that Virginia can’t wait for either the royalty structure or the map to be fixed. Why Virginia should be in a hurry to make a terrible deal isn’t clear.
Virginia’s politicians like to talk about the jobs that accompany the oil and gas business, and how Virginia could take the lead on the East Coast.
Unsaid, of course, is the risk drilling poses to the environment – which undergirds the tourism industry. The negative impact of drilling and processing remains immense, despite petroleum industry assertions to the contrary.
But worse than all that is the blow serious offshore development would inflict on our current economy and our hopes for the future.
Both the Navy and NASA have said that platforms off Virginia’s coast will impede their ability to do their jobs. Encroachment will threaten good jobs already here in the military and may hamper the ability of state and federal officials to develop the potential at the spaceport on Wallops Island.
In exchange for what?
Virginia gets nothing in this bargain, at least under the current terms.
The state should not go forward with oil or gas development until it has a much better idea of the potential risks and benefits. All Virginians know now are the risks, which are substantial and permanent. There are no promised benefits, and no politician fighting seriously for them.
The commonwealth is being asked to risk its real future for some theoretical prize. It’s a terrible bargain. Virginia shouldn’t make it. Neither should our politicians.
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