What kind of advice would North Carolina get if, at least for a while, it put aside the politics of drilling for natural gas and oil off our coast and focused on the feasibility?
That's a task Gov. Beverly Perdue's Scientific Advisory Panel on Offshore Energy set for itself. The panel has now drafted a report spelling out the pros and cons of drilling, and yes, that's the main finding - there are pros and cons.
Specifically, the well-known drawbacks of offshore drilling - a potential for pollution that would harm our fishing and coastal tourism industries, and the threat of storms - must be weighed against a largely unknown but possibly lucrative upside. The state could gain jobs and royalty revenue from offshore oil and/or natural gas production. The nation could develop a new source of Made in USA energy, lessening what the draft report terms the "negative consequences" of energy imports.
However, no one can yet be sure that commercially attractive quantities of hydrocarbons exist off our coast, even though the geology looks promising in places. There simply hasn't been enough exploration, and that's due to federal, not state, policy.
Distant canyons
Even significant deposits off North Carolina would not be enough to lower prices at the pump or at the gas meter. And assuming big deposits are found, they're likely to lie under deep water and amid steep underwater canyons. "These slopes," the panel reports, "are geologically the most prone to major landslides and slumps along the Atlantic margin."
Also, the most promising drilling sites are likely to be 50 miles or more out to sea. Under existing rules Uncle Sam, not the state, would reap the revenue and royalty-sharing rewards. So if drilling is ever to pay off in Raleigh, our congressional delegation must work in Washington to strike a better deal for the state. The panel advocates that, and Perdue is pushing for it.
Still want to drill? Different people will read the draft report in different ways, but certainly it's not a trumpet call to charge ahead. Perdue, who has waxed and waned on the issue over the years, now says she leans toward support of offshore drilling provided it can be done safely.
The Democratic governor, facing a tough fight for re-election against a candidate from the party of Drill, Baby, Drill, would love to take the issue off the table. And her stance - support for at least the preliminary steps toward drilling - is a reasonable one.
Windy out there
It would be just as logical, however, to conclude from the obstacles and uncertainties outlined in the report that drilling off our state's coast is at best unlikely and at worst unwarranted. Cost-conscious energy companies might well place their bets on deposits of oil and gas elsewhere, even elsewhere on the East Coast. Better for Tar Heels to stick with, and to safeguard, our fishing and tourism.
And that might be that, except that one form of Offshore Energy - remember, that's in the panel's name - emerges from the report in a notably positive light. That would be wind power.
North Carolina, it turns out, "has the largest offshore wind resource on the East Coast." The electricity that large-scale offshore wind farms produce is relatively expensive but clean. The extensive and shallow continental shelf off our coast would be a plus for siting arrays of wind turbines. Bird deaths, often associated with turbines, would be far fewer than at inland sites. And the winds off the Outer Banks where the Gulf Stream waters and the Labrador Current converge are "unique and energetic."
It goes without saying that wind power is no cure-all for the nation's energy ills. Even offshore breezes falter, and as yet there's no practical way to store wind energy. Still, the power is there for the taking, and our state enjoys a comparative advantage along the East Coast. In one of its clearest findings, the 105-page report recommends that North Carolina actively promote offshore wind power development. Let's set aside the politics and do just that.
