Offshore oil drilling in the United States should be legalized

I. Resolution: The burden on the Con is to prove that the United States should not legalize offshore oil drilling. Thus, providing a better alternative is sufficient to negate.II. CaseA. Overview: My strategy is going to focus on the benefits of continuing to invest in Petrobras, the national energy company of Brazil. The US Export-Import Bank has already "issued a 'preliminary commitment' letter to Petrobras in the amount of $2 billion and has discussed with Brazil the possibility of increasing that amount" (1). The plan is to continue along the current trend of investment instead of advocating US-based oil drilling.B. Timing: Right now is the key time to increase investment.1. "The Bush Administration's five-year plan (2007-2012) to open the outer continental shelf to oil exploration included new lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico" (2). This means that all of the impacts my opponent claim out of the Affirmative Case (AC) reference the amount of available oil can still be accessed through my advocacy.2. "Brazilian state oil company Petrobras raised $70 billion on Thursday in the world’s biggest share offering, giving the company the financial muscle it needs to tap vast offshore oil reserves. The cash will help fund the world’s largest oil exploration plan, which at $224 billion for the 2010-2014 period aims to turn Brazil into a major energy exporter" (3). Brazil has already become the world's 4th largest company after the IPO, and is in position to become the world's largest oil producer by 2014.3. Officials "have announced new discoveries since April 2011, and it was also announced that no fewer than 174 new licenses would be auctioned by Brazil in September. Brazil’s huge and highly productive pre-salt reserves will no doubt be a focus of many new rigs in the coming years" (4). There will be at leave 174 new rigs licensed by September of this year that will lead to spikes in production.C. Advantage 1 - Economics:1. Because Petrobras is a public company, investing through preferred shared allows the United States to claim profits through all Petrobras sales. This helps two-fold:i. When we buy oil from Petrobras, some of the money spent is coming back to our reserves to slash the price.ii. When everyone else buys oil from Petrobras we make a profit. This will help to cut the country's debt.2. Brazil is quickly becoming a developed nation and this new-found capital will allow them to expand their infrastructure and industries. This makes it a prime market for U.S. exports. Creating economic ties with Brazil through Petrobras donations will increase the chances to having access to this rapidly emerging gold-mine.D. Advantage 2 - International Relations: 1. "Petrobras, an integrated energy company and the global leader in deepwater oil exploration and production, operates in 27 countries in the Americas, Africa, Asia and Europe" (5). Many countries around the world rely on Petrobras for the development of oil rigs. In buying shares of Petrobras, we create economic ties to this countries. They will be more open to political relations which will help promote American Interests abroad.2. Petrobras is emerging as a political powerhouse in Latin America. This is a region where the United States has weak political relations. By allying ourself with what looks to be the economic powerhouse of the region we can start to repair our damages with the region and build new relations.Onto my opponent's case.C1: My plan gets out of the impacts of the first contention. Brazil will rely on the United States for funding and thus cannot simply cut-off sales. Also, it is a publicly owned company so it can't politically choose not to sell oil to the United States.C2: There is no timeframe for when this economic activity will occur. He claims that there are oil reserves to be tapped but doesn't explain how long it will take us to access them. We have no quantifiable way to weigh the impacts. As for the Hahn-Passell study, you can cross-apply my economic advantage to see why we will still be making money. He also tries to say that the economic activity outweighs enviromental damage, but this simply isn't true. You can't buy a clean environment. Petrobras is actually being environmentally friendly, "The Capuava Refinery (Recap), in São Paulo, is a concrete example of water reuse; it is the first unit with zero effluent disposal" (6). They are already utilizing technology to be economically friendly. You can't just buy clean water, you have to work towards it. Also we can look at how the deep-water horizon spill effected the economy negatively, and this happened ONE MONTH before the study was released. The authors obviously aren't paying attention to the actual technology being used and its current failures.C3: Investing in Brazil solves for the impact. My opponent claims that oil drilling is enough to lower seepage, it doesn't matter who is doing the drilling.1. http://online.wsj.com...2. ibid3. http://www.financialexpress.com...4. http://www.oil-blog.com...5. http://laht.com...6. http://www.petrobras.com.br...