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Our choice: Park the car or get used to oil rigs

By BARBARA L. FREDRICKSEN
Published September 24, 2005

I will go out on a limb and predict that by Jan. 1, 2008, there will be offshore oil drilling rigs in sight of Clearwater Beach.

It won't happen because of $2.75 a gallon fuel (that's what I'm paying for diesel right now) or even politics, though that's a factor in this story (see below).

It will happen when local gas pumps start gurgling and local folks are fighting over those last drops of fuel.

At that point, thousands, yea, millions of unhappy Floridians will picket the courthouses and capital buildings, shouting, "We want oil! We want gasoline! We're willing to pretend that the lights on the offshore derricks are passing cruise ships!"

Not even we tree huggers want to ride a bicycle from New Port Richey to Tampa to work every day or trudge 5 miles home from the grocery store lugging a gallon of souring milk.

As former state Rep. Chuck Smith used to say, "You don't want offshore oil rigs? Then park ya car."

We NIMBY Floridians can't expect Louisiana and Texas to forever bear the brunt of oil drilling and refining while we tool around in our SUVs. Besides, we now see how easily those supplies can be gone with the wind.

The prospect of offshore drilling doesn't alarm me as much as it does some people. I grew up in the shadow of East Texas oil derricks - we kids climbed and played on them - and had working pumps on my property most of the time I lived there. (Unfortunately, the previous landowners had sold mineral rights to Texaco, so all we got was the pumps, lines and enough free natural gas to heat our swimming pool.)

Later, I spent many fine hours fishing from boats near offshore rigs, where the fish gather, or sitting on a moonlit beach watching a tall derrick's twinkling lights in the distance. My dad, uncles, cousins, friends and my former husband all worked in the oil industry, so it's not a scary thing to me.

From a purely capitalistic view, oil drilling revenues are a lot more dependable than tourists, citrus groves and construction. Hurricanes, airplane hijackings, hard freezes, and soaring property taxes and insurance rates may dampen those industries, but they're barely a blip in the oilfield.

Then there are the job opportunities. Beginner and intermediate oilfield workers can make $40,000 to $60,000 a year, many times what they can earn changing sheets in a motel, picking tomatoes in the fields or toting bedpans at the local nursing home. Supervisors make $100,000 a year and more.

Offshore oil workers usually work 14 days offshore (albeit 12 hard hours a day), followed by 14 days on land, so it's possible for them to have an onshore business or second job and make even more.

But what about the danger of fouling our beaches?

The biggest oil-related dangers to beaches are barges and pipelines, not drilling. Barges (which we already have coming to our ports) are responsible for most oil spills. The days when oil rigs "blew in" (think Jett Rink striking oil in the movie Giant) are long past. As for broken drill pipes and gushers, rigs have blowout preventers that can cut off the flow at the ocean floor by remote control if there is a problem with pressure.

As for debris and human waste, it's arguable that one average-sized condominium (or hospital) puts out more trash and sewage than a huge oil platform operation does.

As for those globs of gook on the Texas and Mexico beaches, that's usually processed oil, mostly from cruise and cargo ships pumping out their bilges offshore. Some oil bubbles up naturally. Yes, there are some rig spills, but not many.

Fortunately for us, the gulf current takes that stuff west into the Big Bend rather than onto our shores. Even now, old shoes and other debris from New Orleans are washing up on Galveston beaches.

As for the murky Texas and Louisiana coastal water, that's the outpouring of silt and pollution from the heartland brought down by the Mississippi, Atchafalaya, Sabine and other rivers. Florida's short spring-fed rivers, by contrast, are clear as glass (for now anyway).

My greatest concern about offshore drilling is chemical contamination at the drilling site caused by dumping drilling mud and other fluids used to keep the bore hole open. A three-year study by reporters at the Mobile Register in Alabama indicated that these wastes may contain dangerous levels of mercury that could enter the human food chain through certain fish, though no definitive scientific studies have shown they do. (Similar contamination onshore is caused by coal-fired power plants.)

In response to those concerns, some companies have recently installed "closed mud systems" that return the rock bored out of the hole to the ocean while removing the chemicals in the mud by a variety of methods, according to the Schlumberger Oilfield Services Web site.

As for actual startup, my friend in the oil business says the industry already knows where many Florida offshore oil formations are, especially in the Panhandle region. Companies could have semisubmersible or jackup rigs, living quarters and oil transport barges on site in days or weeks, he said, and be producing within weeks or months. (Actually, he started out saying six days, but he's something of a Texas braggart.)

The best solution, of course, would be for our federal government to make the auto industry increase fuel efficiency, push hybrid vehicles and support fuel from renewable sources so we wouldn't use so much petroleum. (Not lip service, but for real, please.)

But that's not about to happen in the current administration, which seems firmly entrenched and ready to pass the baton to its clones at the next election.

Besides, local folks don't seem inclined to give up their Hummers and Explorers.

So there you have it, Florida. Is it offshore drilling, or is it park ya car?

[Last modified September 24, 2005, 01:00:22]