Resolution: Allowing deep water offshore oil drilling is in the best interest of the United States

Recently, President Obama issued a 6 month moratorium on deep sea drilling. This supposedly gives experts enough time to examine the problems in the Deep Water Horizon oil well and set new regulations. I will be debating that this is a grand mistake. I state 3 contentions to support the resolution: 1. Allowing deep water offshore drilling decreases US reliance on foreign oil. 2. Allowing deep water offshore drilling increases the supply of usable oil. 3. Allowing deep water offshore drilling increases the number of job opportunities, which leads to less unemployment, which benefits the economy immensely. Contention 1: Allowing deep water offshore drilling decreases US reliance on foreign oil According to ehow.com, "in March Obama proposed a plan to increase domestic offshore drilling." The main reason was to decrease reliance on foreign oil. Less reliance on foreign oil would mean less spikes in oil prices when foreign countries refuse to sell an adequate amount of oil to the US. Less reliance on foreign oil means less competition with other big oil users like China. Less reliance on foreign oil means that we don't have to rely on depleting oil supplies, and that our oil companies don't have to compete with foreign oil companies, especially the oil companies that belong to the country that own the oil fields. According to the Economic Times, "Locked out of the 'easy' oil fields in the Middle East with the exception of Iraq they (the oil companies) are forced to turn to increasingly difficult areas." Bottom line is that less dependence on foreign oil will maintain or drop oil prices. The more dependence we have on foreign oil, the higher our oil prices will be in the future. The moratorium will only delay our detachment from foreign oil. Contention 2: Allowing deep water offshore drilling increases the supply of usable oil In a world where the population is growing exponentially while the supply of oil in the known oil reserves is decreasing linearly, any method of getting more oil is extremely important. The moratorium will delay the discovery and retrieval of millions of gallons of oil. This is bad for the United States because it would have to depend more on foreign oil, which is depleting and is a source of competition between many powerful countries. Oil prices will sharply rise. Contention 3: Allowing deep water offshore drilling increases the number of job opportunities, which leads to less unemployment, which benefits the economy immensely The government promised a financial life line to the unemployed. The less unemployed people there are, the less the government has to pay and the more money it makes. This is obviously beneficial to the government, and thus beneficial to America. The moratorium not only delays potential job opportunities, but also destroys thousands of jobs, says Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal. The moratorium will force a lot of rigs to close, forcing oil companies to fire a lot of workers. Unemployment will rise, forcing the government to pay millions of dollars more for unemployment life lines. Millions that could be better spent on bettering American society. Sources: http://www.nola.com... http://www.ehow.com... http://economictimes.indiatimes.com... http://thinkprogress.org...