Last weekend, as Friday night turned to Saturday morning, the Senate voted to allow offshore drilling on over eight million acres in the eastern part of the Gulf of Mexico.
The royalties will go to the states surrounding the gulf--Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas--so that they can invest in "coastal restoration and hurricane recovery," according to an article in the Mobile Press-Register.
In that area, experts estimate that there is enough gas to heat six million homes for 15 years, but that could be at the expense of the surrounding habitat. Opening up that area so that we can continue to feed our hunger for energy might result in oil spills and disrupted coastal ecosystems. Let's just hope that one of the worst consequences of a gulf coast spotted with rigs is an uglier horizon.
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