A plan to drill off the coast of Canada in one of the North Atlantic's largest oil fields is raising calls for the United States to allow drilling off its own shores.
ExxonMobil is spending $14 billion to drill of the coast of Newfoundland in the Hebron oil field, believed to hold billions of gallons of the black gold, according to CNNMoney.
"Other countries are not letting the grass grow under their feet when it comes to offshore energy development," Dan Kish of the Institute for Energy Research, an organization partly funded by the industry, told CNNMoney. "That's in sharp contrast to American policy."
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Oil companies and their supporters say drilling would create jobs and that safety has improved, and oil naturally leaks into the ocean anyway.
Saying it can drill safely offshore, ExxonMobil says it has learned much through experience. For instance, it has learned to how to keep icebergs at bay by using the propeller wash from ships or attaching cables to them and towing them way, ExxonMobil spokesperson Alan Jefffers told CNNMoney.
The Obama Administration may permit seismic testing, used to estimate the size of oil deposits, later this year, an Interior Department spokesperson said, according to CNNMoney.
Environmentalists oppose allowing offshore drilling.
"The benefits go to the companies, but the risks go to the people," said Mike Lavine, a lawyer for Oceana, told CNNMoney. "We shouldn't be asked to bear those risks for the sake of corporate profit.
Offshore drilling can be a dangerous affair. A Shell drill ship recently ran aground in the Arctic. In 1982, a drill rig capsized and sank in Arctic waters, killing all 84 crewmembers.
A report from the Institute for Energy Research posted last September noted that Shell secured about 35 permits each year from various agencies in order to drill. "The company has routinely exceeded many of the requirements of the government in order to ensure safe operation," the report stated.
"The United States has a vast amount of offshore acreage that could be leased for offshore drilling, but only 2 percent of the outer continental shelf is currently leased for oil and gas development," stated another study from the energy group.
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