VIRGINIA BEACH
While debate over offshore drilling swells at the national level, city leaders are starting to sort out their positions on the politically loaded and still-speculative issue.
At least one City Council member says drilling off Virginia is potentially a "multibillion-dollar" industry. Others are less enthusiastic, saying more information is needed and citing environmental concerns.
"I'm very cautious. I'll be very honest," Mayor Meyera Oberndorf said. "The environment here is so magnificent and fragile. I just want to make sure we don't upset the balance."
Obscuring the picture is the city's precise role in drilling. A congressional moratorium blocks drilling off the East Coast, an issue that's divided Republicans, who generally favor drilling, from Democrats, who say they want the focus shifted to alternative energy sources.
And while Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, a Democrat, supported 2006 legislation to explore for natural gas, but not oil, 50 or more miles offshore, the mechanics of how that would happen haven't been worked out. Another factor is the Navy, which is concerned about drilling in areas used for training.
The council's biggest advocate for drilling is Bill DeSteph.
"It's a huge economic engine," he said, describing high-end engineering jobs he predicted the industry would bring to the Beach.
Some council members said they need more information.
"I am more of a renewable-energy type of person," said Councilman Jim Wood. "I'm much more interested in wave action, solar and wind. That's really where the future is."
"I haven't seen data that makes me totally comfortable," said Councilwoman Barbara Henley. "We've got to make certain that our water quality and our beaches are not degraded no matter what we do."
Others joined DeSteph in supporting drilling.
"With the proper safeguards I'd be supportive of it in light of our current energy crisis," said Councilman Harry Diezel.
Added Councilman Bob Dyer, "This could be a positive thing if it's done right."
Bill Almond, a landscape architect and member of the Resort Advisory Commission, said he's thinking more about how onshore facilities associated with drilling would affect the city.
"It's not so much the drilling offshore, which is clearly out of sight," he said. "It's the infrastructure required on land to provide the support. The pipelines and docks and marine terminals - all the stuff that's associated with processing the raw product. What are the impacts?"
Oberndorf agreed.
"Where would the industrial property be where the gas would come ashore? What neighborhoods would the pipelines go through?"
The first of what will likely be a series offshore drilling forums will be held at 3 p.m. Thursday at the city's Resort Advisory Commission.
It will feature state Sen. Frank Wagner, a Virginia Beach Republican and supporter of offshore drilling, and Eileen Levandoski, the Hampton Roads conservation coordinator for the Sierra Club and a Democratic blogger, who opposes drilling.
Aaron Applegate, (757) 222-5122, aaron.applegate@pilotonline.com
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Can't blame her Reid
Most viable politicians don't take the VBTA or the TLP seriously. Wagner knew he would have a friendly audience so he went.
What a joke
Oberndorf:
"I'm very cautious. I'll be very honest," Mayor Meyera Oberndorf said. "The environment here is so magnificent and fragile. I just want to make sure we don't upset the balance."
If that were TRULY the case, she'd be less inclined to allow her developer buddies to clear and pave EVERY last square mile of this city right up to the waterline.
The bone-headed, double-speaking Mayor and her fun bunch on the Kangaroo council really need to go!
Reality
If you want wind energy, then more power to you. I will tell you up front that the Greens will oppose that because it “kills birds” and is “unsightly”. The fact that tall buildings kill an order of magnitude more birds is, of course, not addressed. How do I know? Because I live in the state with the most wind energy.*
If you want “clean” energy, I suggest you don’t be fooled by ethanol and biodiesel. Those crops are already exasperating the “dead zone” caused by FARM RUNOFF in the Gulf of Mexico. Oil operations have NEVER done damage of this level. This zone of hypoxic water, where no life can survive is, at times, as large as the state of New Jersey. Attempting to replace oil with biofuels will accelerate this devastation enormously.
There is a way to harness energy from the ocean. It is called offshore drilling and Brazil is about to become as rich as the Saudis because they have found enormous oil an
I heard Senator Wagner
at the last debate on this issue. A lot of the stuff he said was just not true, demonstrably not true and easily disproved.
Aside from getting his facts wrong, he often lapses into confusing riffs on nuclear energy, too, as if he's going to drill that up as well. Mostly he just sounds out of touch and casts off throw away lines about technologies he knows nothing about. "Virginia's aren't going back to the horse and buggy", which he says all the time, as if that is the only choice to adopting his stance. He's not forward thinking at all, not a strategic thinker.
The commission should have invited a more technically informed proponent.
I agree with the previous post, we need to be working on clean, renewable energy; energy efficiency, and concentrating on the clean jobs they will bring to Hampton Roads, jobs that can't be outsourced to Asia.
Besides, because the military is only build LEEDS certif
We do not need to drill off the shore of Virginia Beach.
We need to look into clean energy alternatives that will be the future sources. Being located on the oceanfront, we need to look at wind power.
We should be looking at solar power and biodieselfuels. Is there a way to harness to power of the ocean itself so develope energy?
Oil produced in this country will just go into the world market and sold to the highest bidder. After all, oil companies are in business to make the highest return for shareholders.
What happens if our rush to produce oil we destroy our tourist industry, our fishing industry,and our air quality. Let us not be shortsighted.
TLP already sheculed silimar forum but Mayor O backed out
The TLP (Tidewater Libertarian Party) scheduled a similar discussion, offering Mayor Oberndorf (opposed) the floor one month and Senator Wagner (supports) the following the month. Unfortunetly, the Mayor backout out at the last minute stating that she a last minute conflict. Senator Wagner did show up and he made a very compelling aurgument to move forward with the exloration and drilling of offshore natural gas. He made the point that in our quest to reduce our dependancy on foreign natual gas we should seek all opton; wind, tidal, solar, and offshore natural gas. Natural gas doesn't result in oil spills - because, well, it is a gas and not oil.