Offshore continental shelf exploration and extraction

Congress Says NO to Energy

By Alan Caruba
Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Americans are seriously worried over the rising number of their fellow citizens without jobs.

Americans watch the daily cost of a gallon of gasoline as closely as sports scores.

America has so much untapped oil that it boggles the imagination. Much of it is located offshore of the nation’s coastline.

Some states benefit greatly from the oil and natural gas extracted from the Gulf of Mexico. Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas receive revenues collected by the federal government for offshore production and of course there are lots of jobs involved.

July marked a year since the lifting of an 18-year-old presidential moratorium (ban) on offshore exploration and drilling for oil and natural gas, but a de facto ban continues for states from Maine to Florida, Washington to California. In Alaska, a federal ban on extracting oil in ANWR makes a joke out of politicians who call for “energy independence.â€