Romney
Energy Plan Includes Drilling ‘Virtually Every Part’ Of U.S., No
Protections For National Parks
By
Jessica Goad
9
June, 2012
Republican
presidential candidate Mitt Romney is no stranger to attacks on the
environment, as seen in his ads
against clean energy jobs,
his pledge to roll back fuel
economy standards that
protect public health and reduce carbon pollution, and the fact that
he doesn’t know “the
purpose of”
public lands that belong to all Americans.
But
this morning’s Washington
Post sheds
more light on
Romney’s energy plan, including the fact that he would open up
“virtually every part of U.S. lands and waters” to drilling
regardless of whether they are national parks, national monuments, or
protected in some other way. As the Postreports:
Asked whether any place would be off limits for oil drilling, campaign spokesman Andrea Saul said, “Governor Romney will permit drilling wherever it can be done safely, taking into account local concerns.”
Current
law sets some public lands and waters off limits to drilling,
including national parks, national monuments, and wilderness areas.
These places are protected for other uses like hunting, fishing,
sightseeing, and recreation.
Presumably,
if there was oil and gas found there, Romney would allow drilling in
places like the Grand Canyon, Arches National Park, Glacier National
Park, Yellowstone, and Isle Royale National Park in the Great Lakes,
regardless of its impacts on them. In essence, he would take
lands that belong to all Americans and turn them over to oil
companies.
Saul’s
caveat that Romney would promote drilling if it could be done safely
makes little sense considering that safe drilling has thus far eluded
oil and gas companies. Most oil drilling involves the use of
“drilling muds” that can
include toxic chemicals.
Hydraulic fracturing for natural gas involves pumping thousands of
gallons of chemicals
underground to
stimulate wells. And all drilling produces contaminated
water as
a byproduct that must be disposed of. Additionally, oil
spill are not uncommon—for example, a report from USA Today found
an average
of 22 large spills offshore
every year between 2005 and 2009.
Romney’s
calls for drilling everywhere come at a time when oil and gas
production in the U.S. is at its highest
since 1998,
oil imports are the lowest
since 1997,
and there are more
drill rigs in the United States than
the rest of the world combined. Additionally, oil companies are
not drilling public lands and waters that they have already leased.
A new report from the Department of the Interior finds that industry
is sitting on—not exploring or producing—26
million acres of leases offshore and 20 million acres of leases
onshore.
Leading
the Romney campaign’s energy strategy is Harold Hamm, who made
almost all of his $12
billion fortune from
oil and gas drilling in North Dakota.
Jessica
is the Manager of Research and Outreach for the Public Lands Project
at the Center for American Progress Action Fund.
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