Outsized risks, not enough rewards for off-shore drilling

Today, under enormous political pressure, the Virginia Beach City Council is poised to pass a resolution supporting oil and gas drilling off its shore.

The predicates of the vote are the familiar ones - that a new oil and gas industry would provide lots of benefits to the commonwealth, including jobs, money for roads and stability in energy prices.

But there's a problem. Oil and gas drilling off Virginia Beach will do none of those things. It can't.

Here's what Virginia Beach won't get from inviting offshore drilling:

- Jobs. If they ever come to Hampton Roads, oil and gas jobs will be concentrated in a city with onshore industrial facilities. That's not Virginia Beach.

- Money for roads. The federal government has no system in place to allocate royalties to the states that take the risk of inviting offshore energy development. Given the current political and economic climate in Washington, that's unlikely to change.

- A difference in energy prices. Even the most optimistic estimates don't show enough gas or oil off Virginia to make a significant change in world prices. Further, any petroleum extracted from federal territory off Virginia's beaches will go to the highest bidder, which is likely to be in Asia or Europe.

- A fair share. The map the federal government uses to allocate territory along the Outer Continental Shelf cheats Virginia. This has been the case for years. Changing the map requires federal action, which Washington has refused to take, in part because Virginia's loss is Maryland's and North Carolina's gain. That's a lousy deal for the commonwealth.

Instead of the benefits promised by the governor and others in support of the petroleum industry, Virginia Beach will invite serious threats to its current livelihood.

Despite industry claims to the contrary, oil and gas drilling promises an increased risk of environmental troubles, both in the water and onshore. If that threat turns to reality, as it has so many times in so many places, the damage to Virginia Beach's hotel and restaurant industry would take years to overcome.

And just a few years after Virginia Beach narrowly avoided losing Oceana Naval Air Station, the city will seed increased doubts about its seriousness in protecting the military's mission. City officials have been warned that offshore energy development may well endanger the Navy's ability to properly train. That undermines the military's mission at its onshore facilities.

Unless there is a surprise in City Council chambers today, the decision to support offshore drilling will be one of those baffling moments in which politicians vote against their own economic interests and the interests of the people they represent.

Residents will be wise to wonder why.