Offshore Oil Drilling Persuasive Essay

Offshore oil drilling occurs not only in the United States, but around the entire world. Drilling is a common practice and exists in eighty different countries. Within the entire world there are approximately 1,470 functioning offshore oil rigs (“Number of offshore”). At the rate that the United States is drilling, the country will use up all the fuel in the oceans within a fifteen-year time span creating the largest oil shortage in history. Although offshore oil drilling can be harmful to the environment, there have been solutions implemented in attempts to stop the reliance of oil from certain oceanic areas. By looking at the different aspects of offshore oil drilling such as the rewards, risks, and the effects on our nation we can find …show more content…
Because oil is being consumed at such a fast rate around the world, there is a constant need. The world consumes oil at a rate of twenty-two million barrels of oil per day. To get a better understanding of how much oil the U.S. consumes each day, Keith Schaefer has published recent studies on the U.S. consumption rate. The United States consumes, on average, nineteen point-four million barrels of oil each day. Of the nineteen point-four million barrels consumed, thirty percent is produced from offshore oil rigs in United States water (Haerens 14). With offshore oil drilling starting to become a bigger and better idea in the United States, the benefits of drilling are plentiful. With more offshore oil rigs being built in the United States, gas prices have lowered dramatically. Drilling for more oil has also helped the U.S. become more energy independent and lowered the need for foreign oil. Becoming energy independent would mean that the United States would produce all our oil. Offshore oil drilling has been a solution to help create more jobs due to the need for more oil rigs out in the oceans. Next are concerns of offshore oil drilling along with the risks and