Why Do We Ban Off Shore OIl Drilling on both coasts?

Ive never understood it.. I live on the Texas Gulf Coast and can see rigs running just off the shore...and helicopters haul workers to and from the rigs every day... It doesnt hurt anything..we have had very few problems from it.. plus the fishermen love the oil plat forms....instead of hurting the fishing apparently it helps it..They fish around them all the time... Places like California disgust me.. they dont want to drill off their shores...but they want Texas and Lousiana to do it and sell them all the oil they can use.. Personally I hope they run out of damn oil in places that do not allow it but want to buy it from others..... I think their policies about not drilling off shore there is stupid.. especially in todays situation...AS far as environmentalist go.. how many of them do you know who do not have heating and cooling in their homes....they just want to talk about cars and such... Hell they never consider that the power plants producing the electricity for their house, computer...their heating and cooling... their hot water heater...and etc..use oil and gas /..... well some even coal.. .. Id say turn their electricity off an see what they say then...

Yup. You've got a pretty good grasp on the situation. The environmentalists are the primary ones to blame for our ailing economy. However inefficient wind and solar power are, they're still clinging to the idea like the last lifeboat off the Titanic. Oh, did you know there are environmental groups against wind power too? Because it kills some birds.

Since you would not even be able to see the rigs from the beach - and all these tourist towns will have no tourists when people can't put gas in their cars for vacations anymore - they might want to reconsider. A country without energy - their own energy - held hostage to the middle-east oil King$ - will lose not only their economic stability but their freedom and security as well. All forms of energy should be explored and developed; we can't go back to the stone age in an industrialized society and just say no to oil production and use; that is just another liberal fairy tale, and lack of reason and logic.

I am a liberal and I am in favor of it. The oil companies should have to prove financial responsibility for any damage they cause with the amounts agreed in advance. They should have to pay for all tourism lost, fishing rights, and property values lost in perpetuity for any spill they have, and a responsible third party elected by the stakeholders with the oil company getting one vote for who the third party in charge of determining the value lost. ANY TRUE LIBERAL WOULD - The first law of liberalism is that you can do anything you want until you violate somebody else's rights. The current ban was signed into law by George H W Bush, and his son Jeb Bush supported him, and signed a similar state ban. Classical liberalism (also known as traditional liberalism[1] and laissez-faire liberalism,[2] or, in much of the world, simply called liberalism) is a doctrine stressing individual freedom and limited government. This includes the importance of human rationality, individual property rights, natural rights, the protection of civil liberties, constitutional limitations of government, free markets, and individual freedom from restraint as exemplified in the writings of Adam Smith, Ludwig von Mises, David Ricardo, Voltaire, Montesquieu, Thomas Paine and others. As such, it is the fusion of economic liberalism with political liberalism.[2] The "normative core" of classical liberalism is the idea that laissez-faire economics will bring about a spontaneous order or invisible hand that benefits the society,[3] though it does not necessarily oppose the state's provision of a few basic public goods such as health care. Unlike conservatives who believe that we should go back to an earlier time where the government legislated beliefs and morals, and dispose of civil liberites which is what we have today.

Pretty stupid. But you may be on to something there. But we'll never know. Seems like the tree huggers are still winning this one for a while. Until they have to go hungry maybe

Environmenta wackos are living in the past and have not kept up with techology. Of course we can extract oil off the coasts without problems, and if by some chance we did have a leak the cleanup technology has also advanced. Dont be fooled these people are controlling the Democrats and they want high prices to affect change in behavior of people in this country. After all liberals always know what is best for you and I. They could care less on the hardships on poor working people and senior citizens these high gas and food prices cause. I live in Florida and I say drill now, drill here, lower prices.

You have to realize that environmentalists are not opting for cheap oil. They want no oil. They want our country to turn back the clock before the industrial revolution. Let's just be "one" with the earth, bro. The American citizen must feel remorse for being so rich and entrepreneurial. We must grieve our capitalistic ideals. God does not bless America...or so the environmentalist (oops, I meant "socialist/communist") would want you to believe.

You didn't hear the tree huggers aloud drilling in California for the right price.They sold out their own cause I guess man made global warming isn't that big of a threat.

I live in Ca. Arnie is a big goof. He turned out to let Sacramento spend more than they did under Gumby. We have oil platforms off Santa Barbara and Long Beach that are clealy visable less than a mile off shore. One of the things I have not seen brought out is that not only does the Government tax fuel at the pump, they also take 25% in Royalities off the top. There may not be a need to drill off shore anyway. Here is the link to Gull Island Oil Reserves in Alaska. Chose from any number of articles. From what I have read there is 200 years supply there. The wells were drilled in the 70's and capped. They were taking 35,000 barrels a day from a 31/2 inch pipe. http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=Gull+Island+oil+reserves&fr=yfp-t-501&toggle=1&cop=mss&ei=UTF-8 The permits to allow for drilling or building new refineries on average from our law makers in Congress take 25 years to obtain