Expert says offshore drilling in Virginia is inevitable

(istock photo)

By Scott Harper
The Virginian-Pilot

VIRGINIA BEACH — Milton Copulos did not mince words Monday at a VIP forum on possible drilling for natural gas and oil off Virginia’s coast. “Sooner or later, we are going to have to do it,” said Copulos, president of The National Defense Foundation, a Washington think tank. The government, he said, can either start the drilling process now, with environmental protections in place, “or when people are shooting each other in gas lines.”

At that desperate point, Copulos said, “We’ll have to say, 'Sorry, tree-huggers, but we’ve got to get busy.’”

The forum was the first of four to be held this summer across the country, each sponsored by Congressional Quarterly magazine and Shell Exploration and Production . Among Monday’s speakers was Henry Lee, a professor in Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, who said the offshore debate may signal the end of an American era – of cheap, abundant energy.

Lee used Starbucks to drive home his point. Consumers can buy a cup of Starbucks coffee for about $2 . They could fill up that same cup with bottled water for about 90 cents . To fill it with oil, he said, would cost about 15 cents .

With population giants China and India needing more fossil fuels to stoke burgeoning economies, oil prices will only continue to increase as demand grows, Lee said – perhaps to as high as $100 per barrel. It’s about $70 today.

The forum was held at the Virginia Aquarium and Marine Science Center and featured 32 invited speakers and experts from across the country. They included two state senators, an environmental advisor to Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, oil and gas executives, industry officials, environmental activists, U.S. Rep. Thelma Drake, a Republican who represents much of Norfolk and Virginia Beach, and an aide to Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco .

Louisiana agreed to open its offshore waters to oil and gas drilling years ago and is a leading domestic producer. Blanco’s aide, Sidney Coffee , was asked by a panelist what advice she would give to Virginia as it considers the same thing.

“Be careful before you sign on the bottom line,” Coffee responded. “Make sure you cut your deal beforehand, and make sure you get your revenue-sharing.”

Coffee was referring to the money that states receive – and do not receive – from the U.S. government when energy companies drill off their coasts. Under current law, states only are paid royalties for oil and gas extracted in waters between 3 miles and 6 miles from shore.

A bill pending in Congress would give states and local governments 75 percent of the royalties in waters between 3 miles and 12 miles offshore, and the states 50 percent beyond 12 miles .

The same legislation, expected to be considered by the House later this year, also empowers states to “opt out” of a national ban on oil and gas drilling on the Outer Continental Shelf. Coastal states also could “opt in” and keep ocean waters closed, said Jack Coleman , counsel to the House Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources.

Coleman said the bill also includes a carrot for Virginia: a new map, which would give the state a stake in a much larger chunk of offshore waters, up to 100 miles from shoreline.

Earlier this year, the House defeated another bill that would have lifted the offshore moratorium outright. Drake voted against that bill, because it would have allowed energy companies to explore for oil and gas deposits as close as 3 miles from shore.

Drake said Monday’s forum was timely, coming a day after Iran threatened to cut off oil exports to the United States and after Cuba announced a deal with China to drill for oil and gas off its coast, within about 45 miles of Florida’s territorial seas.

Environmentalists said offshore drilling would surely forever change coastal cities such as Virginia Beach. Pipelines would be built, transfer stations constructed, tourism threatened and marine ecosystems altered.

Before all that happens, they said, governments first should pursue alternative energy – especially with global warming and its ties to fossil fuels becoming an international problem.

At one point, Mike Town , state director of the Sierra Club , challenged the acting assistant secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior, Johnnie Burton, to conduct a full investigation of possible offshore wind energy.

“We already are,” Burton told Town.

“We also can say with certainty that one platform in the Gulf of Mexico would equal the energy from wind turbines placed shoulder to shoulder on the coast of New Hampshire,” she said.

Town did not disagree, only that wind energy should be considered “part of the solution.”