Resolved: Allowing deep-water offshore oil drilling is in the best interest of the United States.

"Bench, you have the floor."^ Theres probably a bench joke that can be made off of that, but once again im too lazy to think of it. Lets get on with the debate then: Reasons why allowing deep-water offshore oil drilling is in the best interest of the US1) The US depends on oil, and lots of it, which deep-water offshore drilling can help provideThe US economy itself functions only when there is an abundance of oil. The very act of workers commuting form their homes to their jobs depends on the availability of oil, and if its abundance goes down, that causes gas prices to go up, which effects EVERY working class citizen who commutes to work because if they cant afford to buy the gas to get them to their job and back, then that causes a crapload of economic problems for the US. This is exactly what happened in the oil embargo's of the 1970's where Arabic countries boycotted oil exports to the US and the economy subsequently slid into a massive recession....http://en.wikipedia.org...http://www.gao.gov...These days, the US is still a slave to oil consumption, and the only reason why gas prices arent hovering near record highs like they were in the past is due in part to large amounts of oil still being discovered and accessed in places we couldnt reach before, such as deep offshore.... Deep offshore oil mining has taken off in recent years (despite the BP oil spill hiccup) due in part to recent developments in technology making it easier to access and safer to do so, without negatively impacting the environment.http://online.wsj.com...Since we still live in a world where gas prices heavily influence whether or not the economy can perform or not, it is in the best interests of the US to exploit deep-water offshore oil drilling since one of the biggest reasons why oil prices are still manageable is because vast oil fields are still being discovered or accessed when they previously couldnt be. Its also projected that deep-water drilling could account for up to 13% of all oil production in the world by 2020, and that US offshore production is expected to grow by 18% by 2020 as well 2) It is a hell of a job creatorOffshore oil drilling stimulates a hell of a lot of industries in the US that not only creates jobs, but makes them lasting jobs while stimulating other industries as well. Shipping jobs, drilling jobs, construction jobs,engineering jobs, refining jobs, exploration jobs... All of these plus many sectors are all stimulated by deep-water offshore drilling. These arent your minimum-wage cant-live-off-the-salary type jobs either, the average salary of oil rig workers STARTS at 66k a year, and can jump up to 6 figures after just a year..... Off shore drilling is simply a fantastic economic stimulant, which is useful to the US with its ever-lagging recovery form this last depression we are climbing out of. 3) Its actually safer then other means of oil drillingOil rig catastrophes dont happen very often... In fact they really were an issue only during the 1980's when it was a pretty new industry..... When oil rigs do fail though they also dont result in a massive oil spill like we saw with BP's Deep Horizon spill, 80% of the time nobody is killed http://home.versatel.nl...^ Also worth mentioning, Most oil rig failures dont happen in the Gulf of Mexico or the US.... They usually happen in Indonesia, the middle east, or some other place that is even remotely close to the US. Also worth noting is that a third of those incidents that DID happen in the Gulf of Mexico were caused by hurricanes striking the oil platforms, not by an engineering failure. Point is: They dont catastrophically fail that often, when they do happen its usually not near the US, and when it is near the US not a lot of people die and its usually only minor damage caused by nature. Compare that to fracking, in which people's drinking water can be poisoned and become combustible while also potentially causing EARTHQUAKES to occur, suddenly deep-shore oil drilling seems a lot safer then other means of drilling for oil. http://www.nationaljournal.com...3) Its immune to political events, instability, and revolutionsWhat makes oil drilled deep off-shore different then oil imported from Middle Eastern countries is that the flow of oil from the offshore rigs isnt effected by political developments. When a government in the Middle East becomes unstable, collapses, or goes to war with another nation, it puts a potential threat on oil that is imported from that region from being cut off all of a sudden for extensive periods of time..... When Iran and the US were really on edge with each other, oil prices spiked since Iran threatened to shut off the strait of Hormuz and potentially cut off a ton of oil imports from reaching the US.This is something that doesnt effect deep-water offshore oil drilling. Offshore oil drilling that is done in the US's own backyard is immune from political instability in other parts of the world, which makes it much safer to rely on then imported oil that comes from areas that are known for being plagued with political upheaval, which is just about EVERY oil producing region that isnt Canada. http://www.ibtimes.com...http://abclocal.go.com...4) There arent many downsides to offshore oil drillingThe most common concern over deep-water offshore drilling that many people think of first is that its an environmental hazard, and theres a degree of truth to that concern..... However, the US overall has extensive safety protocols in place that drastically limits the number of oil-rig incidents that happen compared to the rest of the world.... And after the BP oil well exploded, a crap-load of additional safety protocols were put in place to make sure such an event wouldnt happen again. The biggest environmental incident involving an oil spill prior to the BP oil rig explosion was the Exxon-Valdez incident, in which an oil tanker ruptured its hull and caused the deadliest oil spill in the US at the time: http://en.wikipedia.org...After the incident, a ton of regulations were installed requiring oil tankers to be double-hulled to prevent another spill of that size from happening again due to a hull rupture, among other protocols and regulations as well. After the safety measures were implemented, there wasnt another oil spill like that of the Exxon-Valdez that happened in the US ever again, and the exact same thing is being applied to oil rig safety after the BP oil spill.....It used to be pretty unsafe, but we've had our wake up call now and weve corrected what needed to be corrected, meaning that another incident like the BP oil rig explosion likely wont happen anytime in the next 30 years, if ever. ======================================================================To summarize: - The US needs oil, and lots of it - Deep-water oil drilling can provide that oil and its projected to help do so - It is a great job creator, pays great wages, and stimulates a lot of other industries which the US could use right now - It isnt effected by political events and developments in the Middle East like imported oil from that region is - Its been pretty safely used in the US in the past - It will DEFINITELY be safely used in the US in the future since we've had our wake-up call for what can go wrong and how we can stop it.