President Bush and Delaware Are Each Hitting the Beach for Energy Needs – But For Very Different Reasons

What do Delaware and President Bush have in common? And no, it’s not that The Simpsons has made each into a walking punch line. Both the First State and the First in Command are seeking offshore solutions to the nation’s energy crisis. However, what they each see as offshore energy opportunities could not be more different. While Bush is looking below the waves to drill untapped oil reserves – Delaware is looking forward to housing the first offshore wind farm in the country.

On Monday President Bush lifted an executive ban on producing oil from the outer continental shelf (OCS) – a mandate left unchallenged since the President’s father, George Bush Sr., gave the executive order in 1990.

In a statement from the White House rose garden, the President addressed the nationwide strain of high gas prices. “This is a difficult period for millions of American families. Every extra dollar they have to spend because of high gas prices is one dollar less they can use to put food on the table or send a child to school.” 

President Bush asserted that in order to “reduce pressure on prices…we need to increase the supply of oil, especially here at home.” For Bush this would include oil exploration in the OCS – offshore drilling which has been prohibited by federal law since 1981.

According to a press release from the White House, OCS areas currently prohibited from oil exploration could contain nearly 18 million barrels of oil in underwater reserves. Bush went on to say that the OCS could provide nearly 10 years worth of America’s oil production, based on current levels.

Despite outcries from environmental groups, Bush claims that technological advances have made it possible to conduct offshore oil exploration “that is out of sight, protects coral reefs and habitats, and protects against oil spills.” In a statement Tuesday to CNN, Bush further emphasized the protection that the coastal reefs would receive. "I'm concerned about the reefs. I'm a fisherman. I like to fish. Reefs are important for fisheries…but the technology is such that you can protect the reefs."

But Congressional Democrats – and Delaware’s own Joe Biden – are calling this skipper’s bluff.

Just hours after the President announced his decision to lift the ban on offshore drilling; Delaware’s Sen. Joe Biden delivered a speech from one of the shores that would be directly affected by this decision – Cape Henlopen Beach, Delaware. Biden utterly rejected Bush’s proposal, stating that the decision to pursue OCS oil exploration is merely “a last-ditch effort to go out and rape the offshore continental shelf, so that they own it and are able to use it as leverage in the future, because they know if they don't get it in the last couple of months of this administration, they're not going to get it."

Biden addressed a small but enthusiastic crowd on the Great Dune Overlook at Cape Henlopen State Park – only miles north of Rehoboth Beach, the future construction site for the nation’s first offshore wind farm. In late June, Bluewater Wind Delaware, LLC, a subsidiary of Babcock and Brown, signed a 25-year contract with Delmarva Power to sell the region’s leading energy provider 200 megawatts of power from a wind farm 11.5 miles off the coast of Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. The agreement marked the end of a long-fought battle in both the Delaware General Assembly and amid the passionate citizens of Delaware.  (Watch my video, “Bluewater is the New Green” here) Bluewater is now seeking bids from other local energy providers, and hopes to build a 150-turbine farm with a generating capacity of 600 megawatts.

Biden applauded the Bluewater project as a renewable solution to the country’s energy crisis. The Senator maintained that clean energy like wind power not only provide a domestic answer to foreign oil dependency – but also greatly reduce our carbon footprint, and address the growing threat of global warming. "I'm proposing a five-year Apollo project for energy and climate change that would make a substantial, $50 billion investment in alternative energy and energy efficiency,” Biden stated on Monday. He proposes the project could be funded by cutting the $2 billion in tax breaks now offered to major oil companies.

President Bush lamented the opposition to offshore drilling by Democratic legislators like Biden – and argued that the only thing standing in the way of increased domestic oil production was the Democratic congress. “Failure to act is unacceptable. It’s unacceptable to me and it’s unacceptable to the American people…the only thing standing between the American people and these vast oil resources is action from the U.S. Congress.”

But for Sen. Biden, rising gas prices are no reason to rush into a new energy policy that could damage a fragile marine ecosystem and exacerbate a global climate crisis. "The price of nothing happening is better than the price of something happening," Biden said, emphasizing his opposition to offshore drilling proposed by Bush. "What we can do is prevent things from getting a lot worse."

As summer shore season kicks into high gear – vacationing beach bums will have to ask themselves how they wish to see offshore waters utilized in the future. Would you rather see wind turbines on the coastline – or oil rigs? Are you getting burned from a hotter sun and wishing for more alternative energy – or are the gas costs from the car ride down to the shore burning a hole in your pocket? Should we excavate oil as a temporary solution to a vast energy shortage – or plan for the future on the winds of change?