President Trump today signed an executive order that could expand offshore energy drilling. Among other measures, the order rolls back an executive order issued in the final weeks of the Obama presidency that banned energy drilling in hundreds of millions of acres of offshore land.
As a long-time advocate of offshore energy exploration, I believe it's utterly absurd to ban ourselves from developing vast energy resources that would help lower fuel prices, relieve our dependence on unstable and hostile foreign energy suppliers, create jobs, and strengthen America's international influence.
We all know what comes next—a long campaign of lawsuits by radical environmental groups, which is the same tactic they used to choke off the Central Valley's water supply. These groups typically oppose the use of all fossil fuels and even natural gas, the building of energy pipelines, energy exploration both on land and offshore, car transportation, and many other facets of modern living. They act according to a philosophy of apocalyptic global warming that was recently expressed by University of Michigan Professor Juan Cole, who argued that carbon dioxide emitted as part of everyday modern life is "a far more deadly gas" than the chemical weapons used by the Syrian regime to massacre its citizens.
I mean no offense to the global warming prophets of doom, but I welcome more offshore energy exploration and want to see it move ahead quickly.
