Oil industry continues to mislead on drilling benefits
Once again, Bill Crowther is reading from the same tired script provided to him by the American Petroleum Institute (Letters: 11/23/2015). He has added a couple of new twists but it still rings as hollow as before.
He is still claiming that offshore drilling will create 35,000 new jobs for South Carolina without specifying what those jobs might be or what qualifications will be needed. He did add that 3,900 of those jobs would be in retail and food services, neither sector offering particularly high wages. You only have 31,100 more jobs to explain, Bill. Is it possible those jobs will be filled by some of the 70,000 oil workers who just lost their jobs in North Dakota because of the oil glut?
Mr. Crowther then goes on to explain that in spite of the disastrous oil spills caused by gross negligence and human error on the part of British Petroleum, that 78 percent of shrimp production in this country comes from the Gulf. He neglects to mention that the shrimp catch is still less than 75 percent of what it was before the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and was only 50 percent the year of the spill. How many of our local businesses could sustain a 25 to 50 percent loss in revenue for 5 years? And by the way, Gulf shrimp only accounts for about 5 percent of that consumed in this country. The rest is mostly imported.
He once more quotes a poll, paid for by the American Petroleum Institute, that shows that 71 percent of South Carolina voters support offshore drilling. If the question was worded, “If offshore drilling would make you wealthy and create thousands of new jobs and we promise not to harm small children and kittens, would you support it?,” how would you respond? Pollsters can pretty much create any outcome they are paid to create. And I would bet that none of the more than 1 million residents living in South Carolina’s coastal counties was asked to participate in that poll.
Crowther closed by saying we should not let misinformation stand in the way of responsible energy development. I agree. It is just that he and the American Petroleum Institute are the ones spreading misinformation and that offshore drilling is not responsible energy development. You be the judge.
The writer lives in North Litchfield Beach.
This story was originally published December 2, 2015 at 8:46 AM with the headline "Oil industry continues to mislead on drilling benefits."