Why Are the Democrats So Afraid of Drilling?

If you ask a Democrat why they won't allow drilling they'll probably point out the Exxon Valdez accident or the Santa Barbara oil spill from 40 years ago. They'll tell you that drilling poses a terrible environmental hazard (and it might inconvenience some caribou in Alaska). In fact, drilling in the U.S. has a remarkable safety record according to this report:

Since 1975, drilling in the Exclusive Economic Zone (within 200 miles of the U.S. coast) has had a 99.999% safety record, according to the Energy Information Administration, which reports that “only .001 percent of the oil produced has been spilled.”

Thanks to technological advances, large spills are rare. Most spills are tiny, only a few feet in diameter.

So what are the Democrats so afraid of? The industry has an outstanding record, and nobody is better at cleaning up their own messes than Americans. What they're really afraid of is the ire of the environwackos who will take their contributions and go elsewhere if they start supporting a sane drilling plan.

As the article points out, the number one source of ocean pollution is not oil drilling rigs, but runoff from urban streets:

Runoff from cities, roads, industrial sites and garages deposits 363 million gallons into the sea, making runoff by far the single largest source of oil pollution in the oceans. “Every year oily road runoff from a city of 5 million could contain as much oil as one large tanker spill,” notes the Smithsonian exhibit, “Ocean Planet.”

Oil regularly seeps into the ocean from natural underwater sources, and yet there are no large pools of oil floating on the surface. Why? The ocean's own wave action eventually breaks up and dissipates any oil in the water. The ocean is pretty much self-cleaning.

It's time to drill.