Many energy experts agree that domestic offshore oil drilling is not only unwise energy option from environmental but also from economical point of view. Why? Because it is very likely that domestic oil will in the end cost even more than the foreign oil, and given the current economic times we live in there won't be many people that will be thrilled to support the idea of buying more expensive energy option just because it is domestic, heck if that was the case than we wouldn't see the cheap stuff from China everywhere we turn to.
Capital costs of these projects are projected to be very high, and U.S. still needs to test potential sites by making drilling tests and some other required tests and studies that of course don't come cheap either. And once domestic oil starts flowing you can be sure that these upfront costs will be included in final oil price making it more expensive compared to foreign fuel option.
How many of you would buy more expensive oil just because of its domestic origin? In today's economy patriotism doesn't pay off, and cheaper solutions are always the popular ones. In reality, the only thing that could make people buy more expensive domestic oil is some government regulation, and this definitely wouldn't go well with public.
Renewable energy is much better option, and instead of drilling for domestic oil U.S. should put more efforts to develop renewable energy technologies in order to make renewable energy projects more feasible. Yes, renewable energy option is still a rather expensive option but offshore oil drilling doesn't come cheap either. Therefore, renewable energy is definitely the better option, if not for anything else then because of its environmental benefits.
But U.S. still fails to realize this rather simple logic, and this is really the main reason why U.S. is currently well behind China in global clean energy race.
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