Obama: Offshore and Off Base

Obama's decision to drill on the outer continental shelf is a bad one on several counts

The U.S. Congress instituted a moratorium on drilling the outer continental shelf in 1981. President H.W. Bush issued a parallel presidential moratorium in 1990. President Clinton extended it. In 2008, President George W. Bush lifted the moratorium.

And on Tuesday, President Obama announced plans to open vast areas of water along the Atlantic, the Gulf of Mexico and Alaska to offshore oil and natural gas drilling for the first time.

Oil companies cheered. Environmentalists and renewable energy advocates were stunned.

This decision will further increase the distance between the United States and the many developed nations that are forging the future of renewable energy.

America currently lags behind Japan, Switzerland, Germany, Australia, Norway the Netherlands and Austria in solar watts per capita.

In 2006, Sweden's sustainable development minister (yes, they have a sustainable development minister) Mona Sahlin declared her nation’s goal to become the first country in the world to break the self-destructive dependence on fossil fuel. By 2020, Sweden will have no more gasoline-powered cars or oil-heated homes. The country’s energy will be generated solely by renewable sources.

Then there's the issue of wildlife and the marine ecosystem. The drilling that Obama supports will adversely affect a wide variety of marine life, and will take a particularly heavy toll on dolphins and other cetaceans. Research for drilling requires sonar experiments that have been proven to be extremely disruptive to dolphins' ability to communicate.

Offshore drilling also creates mercury and hydrocarbon contamination of both the water, through toxic spills, and the air, through hazardous fumes. Additionally, there is the ever-present danger of tanker spills for all marine life, including fish, turtles and seabirds.

President Obama said that weaning America off imported oil would require "tough decisions about opening new offshore areas for oil and gas development." But there's really only one decision to make, and it’s not a tough one at all: Do you choose the past or do you choose the future? He chose wrong.

In becoming president, Mr. Obama made history. With this decision, he's repeating its mistakes.

image: oil-covered bird (credit: Oceana)