I’ve made no secret of my general disdain for Sarah Palin. But even populist attention whores sometimes shine the spotlight where it belongs. And she’s a far more right than wrong when she says “Drill, baby, drill” could very well have mitigated or even prevented the Gulf crisis.
One has to be especially purblind no to realize that the limits on drilling (whether off- or on-shore) makes projects like Deepwater Horizon necessary. The first offshore drilling installation was built in 189re good at it. But rigs like Deepwater Horizon that push the envelope of our engineering skills are needed because we’ve blocked off so many shallower areas on our coasts.
Deepwater Horizon was drilling a mile below the surface, having commenced this particular operation in February. So Palin is right: Had we issued permits for heretofore blocked off waters in shallower, safer areas sooner, the Deepwater Horizon well might not have even been necessary. It’s a lot easier — and cheaper — to drill in a few hundred feet of water than a mile.
Of course it goes without saying that a tweet highlighting the greater safety and reliability of ANWR drilling hardly contradicts her earlier complaint that offshore drilling permits had been held up too long, TPMDC’s spin notwithstanding. In fact, if that’s the best one can do to attack her for making patently obvious statements, one would really do better just to remain silent and be thought a fool than speak up and remove all doubt.
No-one likes that the oilspill happened. But using, as so many have leaped to do, it to argue against all oil drilling is like saying a tree falling in a windstorm means we shouldn’t have orchards. A tree on top of a hill in Tornado Alley that’s been partially sawed through.
