Since 2005, the Virginia General Assembly has led the charge to open up the outer continental shelf for the development of our offshore resources. Legislation I submitted in 2005, which called on Washington to lift the moratorium, passed overwhelmingly in a bipartisan effort. My bill was a response to the loss of 65,000 manufacturing jobs, in large part due to skyrocketing energy costs.
These are scary times – and time to get back to basics. Our country can no longer afford to spend $700 billion a year for foreign energy. We must develop our own domestic resources and in put millions of Americans back to work.
There is no one silver bullet. Rather, think of the energy solution as a shotgun shell with many silver pellets—and we must scatter all of them, including greatly expanded nuclear generation, clean coal technologies, oil shale recovery, synthetic fuels from coal, biofuels, renewable energy sources, energy efficiency and conservation, and expanded access to resources on the outer continental shelf.
The General Assembly studied all aspects of the offshore industry and found its environmental track record superb. No significant spills from platforms occurred during Rita and Katrina, the largest hurricanes on record. In fact, each offshore platform has become its own ecosystem, with over 30,000 fish congregating there (see www.towersoflife.com).
The fjords of Norway are just as pristine today as before the development of the North Sea oil fields. Same story on Scotland’s coastline. Canada has been recovering natural gas from Lake Erie for decades, and is also recovering about 500 million of cubic feet of natural gas per day in the Atlantic basin off Nova Scotia – which is adjacent to the Grand Banks, arguably the largest fishing ground in the world.
An estimated 6,000 new jobs would be created in Virginia from direct support of offshore activities. And a 35 percent royalty share from the federal government translates to $200 million a year for the next 40 years, appropriated directly back to Virginia, according to U.S. House of Representatives Resources Committee.
Virginia has crafted a comprehensive energy plan that is based on one premise: Americans producing American energy for American homeowners and American industry. Unfortunately, Washington controls much of what we want to accomplish.
What is needed—now—is a comprehensive national strategy, with streamlined permitting for not only offshore resource recovery, but also nuclear, clean coal and renewables. I have watched a Virginia entrepreneur struggle for years through three lawsuits and reams of bureaucratic red tape in an attempt to erect 20 wind turbines in Highland County. The permitting process for offshore drilling can take ten years; permits for nuclear plants even longer.
I fear for our nation if we can’t take control of our energy future. Policies and permitting schemes must allow American businesses to meet the challenges we face in providing affordable energy for our citizens. Part of the royalty money garnished from offshore operations must be invested in our nation’s laboratories to facilitate the development of new technologies that will produce energy from renewable and alternative energy sources and provide energy- efficient cars, appliances and buildings.
Incoherent, inconsistent and unworkable energy policy – coupled with the huge calamity on Wall Street – paints a devastating picture for us, but more importantly, for our children and grandchildren. However, I am an eternal optimist. From disaster comes opportunity.
So I hope to see a comprehensive energy strategy that springs from our ingenuity and uniquely American ability to dig down deep and discover solutions for our problems. Let Wall Street invest capital in new nuclear power plants and offshore development instead of sub-prime mortgages.
Let’s put Americans back to work.
Virginia state Sen. Frank Wagner, R-Virginia Beach, is the author of the Virginia Energy Plan.
