Alec Feinberg
Professor Mangini
12 April 2015
Comp 100
Resources of the Nation
The final part of our portfolio is an I-search paper on a debatable topic that we got to choose on our subject based on what we wanted to learn more about or how it tied into our lives. I dislike assignments that let us choose the topic because I have a hard time finding an interesting topic for the assignment. Thought about everything but I eventually found a topic to research and had relevance to my life now. The topic is: Resuming oil and gas drilling offshore and inland? This is a trick subject because it is still in the news and it is still debated to this day. The drilling of natural gases and oil corrupts society and the environment also the government.
As I looked into the subject a little further I found myself on an oil company’s website in which they were telling me the facts that how oil drilling was good and it creates jobs but I know better than that I know the companies not try to make the world a better place but to make a huge amount of profit. But when I went to “Room for Debate” there were two sides to the story one side wanted to continue drilling and the other side wanted to stop drilling for natural gases and oil. But what was interesting is that a senator was one of those opinions which are very suspicious to me.
Feinberg 2
The way I started my research wasn't by looking information up but asking for ideas from my friends and family. Then it hit me why not do a I -search paper on a subject that is always debatable the corruption that drilling for oil and natural gases has on society and the surrounding environment. First site I went to was Room for Debate a site that has opinions from both sides the side that agrees with drilling for oil and natural gases which was the congress man and the law professor who is just one of two people that believe it's not safe. Next I went to a government site because while I don't believe everything on the site it also is a very credible site to have for my research. After the government site I continued to look around the Internet to find a another source and I found myself on the Bp oil company website as I looked around the site it showed kids smiling and all of their safety precautions but what you don't see is their main goal drill the oil/natural gas then sell it and make a huge profit on it and if they have to take someone's land or house just to get what they want they will step on your rights to so.
Feinberg 3
The first corruption of drilling for oil and natural gases is the corruption of the environment and its toll on ecosystems and the laws that bound the restrictions of the drilling of oil and natural gases industry. According to the ‘TEEIC’ or the Tribal Energy and Environmental Information the ‘excess increases in duct could decrease forage palatability for wildlife and livestock and increase potential for dust pneumonia.” In meaning there will be less nurturance for wildlife to thrive and the chance for lung inflammation That is a serious issue because some of the natural gas pumps are in rural areas were the space is very tight that gives people who live in rural or even suburbs an increase in danger from pneumonia. The Ecological danger of soil being eroded from the roots of trees grass might also the threat of plants that weren't native to the locations ecosystem could take over because of no natural enemies to keep the plants in balance because of the transport of oil/natural gases is form a different part of the nation or even country. There is also the danger of some to the oil or natural gas contaminating water supplies according to the TEEIC the ‘Weathering of newly exposed soils, causing leaching and oxidation that can release chemicals into the water.’, and ‘Activities that cause soil erosion or dust that can be washed into water bodies.’ The new soil that is exposed to the surrounding air dramatically increases luckily hood the chance that the chemicals in the soil will corrupt the drinking water supply for the wildlife. That is why the drilling for oil/natural gases corrupts the environment in a vast way.
Next is the corruption of the society that drilling for oil and natural gases. This is a corruption because the zoning laws that keep the industrial drilling companies from building a pump station in residential neighborhoods but alas these laws are broken because the companies find ways to get around the laws by say they are a public utility so that they can build where ever they want even in a residential neighborhood. The drilling for oil/natural gases affects the water
Feinberg4
supply not just for the environment but that same contaminated water is being used in everyday households around the country. It also possess a major safety and fire hazard in homes according to the YouTube video the people are able to light the water on fire because as a result the water is so contaminated with methane. If I was a person and knowing that of I turn on my sink shower or even light a match it could be the end of me. There are just a few of many reasons that drilling for oil/natural gases not hurt but also destroy communities that people have formed.
The third and final reason is the corruption of how the drilling of oil and natural gases is tied into the decisions of the political system. When one thinks of a politician or government official today the same word comes up every time corrupt. According to the article ‘Oil and Gas Industry Exerts Outsized Political Influence In Colorado: Report in the Colorado Independent by John Tomasic ‘oil and gas companies and industry associations spent about a million dollars annually on lobbying at the capitol and that, over the last two election cycles, the companies and their employees gave roughly $800,000 to help elect Colorado Republican and Democratic candidates.’ (The Colorado Independent’s, Tomasic). Odds are when those candidates get elected the gas and oil companies will start asking for favors and telling them to pass bills that help them avoid zoning laws and increase their profits in that area or state. What they are saying is that we help you get into office, but once you get in we need you to pass some bills that help us out seem fair the candidate agrees and then the deal is made. It is the equivalent of selling your soul to Satan figuratively. Another reason the drilling for oil and natural gases has corrupted the political system is because there is no way to fight it if the guy your voting for to stop the fracking is in with the oil/natural gas companies there won’t be any change. Here is a shining example on how
Feinberg 5
corrupt a politician can be (YouTube). As you can see the way the politician acts when the reporter asked about how he got his campaign money he then walks away in a clam way but comes back in a very aggressive way. Odds are he got his campaign money from the oil and natural gas companies, but we know he will deny it. That some examples on why drilling for oil and natural gases have corrupted the political system to the point where nothing gets done.
Given these points of how drilling oil/natural gases corrupts not just at an environmental stand point but also a social and political stand point as well. The as previously stated the drilling for oil and natural gases is an extreme danger to not just the local wildlife but to an entire ecosystem, Same goes for the social danger of contaminated water and highly flammable methane within the water. This brings us to the final corruption the corruption in the political system and how oil and gas companies get the loop holes needed to corrupt society and the environment. As you can see it is a trickle-down effect the oil and gas companies corrupt the political system and the after effects is a corrupt society and an corrupt environment full of chemicals and radioactive and hazardous materials.
My research started when I asked my friend for help and she gave me an idea and idea that you hear most of the time when it ether effects the town your or you hear it on the radio, news, etc. After I had my topic I emailed it to my professor he said it was to general and needed to be more specific. Some of the strategies that worked was to think of what was it that I wanted to learn more about. What didn’t work was the blowing the assignment off I mean I know the paper is not perfect yet and there are a few more areas that need sprucing up. The main take-away from doing this I –search paper is that we are a long ways away from be a role model to future
Feinberg 6
generations. Also another main take way is that if anything is get done we need to find and get rid of the weight that is holding us back from getting somewhere. As the saying goes ‘Rome wasn’t built in a day’ but it was built by being productive and active in the communities that built it. The questions that need to be asked are how can the average citizen take a stand? and how can the peoples voice be heard thought out the senates and congress?
Feinberg7
Work cited page
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qdUoPnDhYvw
http://youtu.be/Yd8pr6uFA_Y
http://time.com/3814984/the-tireless-tennessee-dealmaker/
http://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/energy/offshore-drilling-controversy.htm
http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2015/02/18/resuming-offshore-oil-and-gas-drilling-in-the-atlantic
http://teeic.indianaffairs.gov/er/oilgas/impact/drilldev/index.htm
http://www.eia.gov/oiaf/aeo/otheranalysis/ongr.html