Military opposes offshore drilling

[highplainsdem]

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/state/orl-drilling2205oct22,0,5409820.story?coll=orl-news-headlines-state


Military opposes offshore drilling

Bill Kaczor | the Associated Press
Posted October 22, 2005


TALLAHASSEE -- Air Force and Navy memos warn that offshore drilling in the eastern Gulf of Mexico would interfere with training and weapons testing and that military use of the water ranges is expected to increase in the future.

U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., cited the memos in a letter dated Wednesday to House Resources Chairman Richard Pombo, R-Calif., who has been trying to craft legislation that would open the eastern gulf to oil and natural gas drilling.

<snipping paragraphs including one quoting an August memo from Maj. Gen. Robert Chidester about the proposed drilling rigs being "totaly incompatible with" training mission activity>

Chedister is commander of the Air Armament Command at Eglin Air Force Base, which controls the water ranges and uses them to test weapons. The ranges also are used for testing and training missions by other Air Force installations and the Navy.

Drilling rigs also would interfere with training by Navy aircraft carriers and missile tests from submarines, Chedister wrote.

The military is an odd ally for those concerned about the impact the drilling will have in the environment, but maybe this pressure will help make it more likely the current moratoriums will be extended.

[pushycat]

1. Are 'water ranges' where they discharge those toxic munitions

like DepUranium? Not sure which is worse, maybe the drilling is less harmful to environment.

[Dover]

2. Hmmm.....might that be a contributer to the infamous 'dead zones'

in the Gulf?

[sofa king]

3. They'll change that tune when they have no toys.

Natural gas is the key component for the manufacture of vitually all high-tech equipment. It's the cornerstone of the chemistry industry, and the chemistry industry produces the lightweight composites and plastics, the wear-reducing coatings and lubricants for piston engines and jet turbines, the propellants for rockets, and a myriad other things the military requires every day.

Unlike oil, natural gas cannot be stolen overseas and hauled by boat to our shores at a fifteen dollar a barrel profit. It must be produced domestically, or at least within North America, and shipped by vulnerable pipelines throughout the country.

Currently, supply is only barely outstripping demand. There is more to be had, but offshore extraction is the most attractive option right now, both cost wise and environmentally.

You don't have to like or believe what I've said above, but that's what someone is going to tell the armed forces sooner or later. Confronted with the choice between conducting their exercises elsewehre and not conducting them at all, they will change their minds.

[fortyfeetunder]

4. And the oil they need to run their war machines

Unless they are designing nuke-reactor fighter planes, they are dependent on the petrochemical stuff like us commoners. So hypocritical...