By the early 1990’s, the U.S. had banned drilling off the
Atlantic coast. In the wake of BP’s deep-water-drilling disaster in the Gulf of
Mexico in 2010, President Obama cancelled his go-ahead of drilling leases off
Virginia’s shore. A few years later, Doug Domenech, the Secretary of Natural
Resources in Virginia, and that republic’s head of state, Bob McDonnell, teamed
up with Virginia’s two delegates in the U.S. Senate to “put Virginia’s coast on
the energy map through an act of Congress.” Domenech said, “I personally
believe that the East Coast of the U.S. does have the ability to be the
prolific economic basin.” The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management estimated based
on two-dimensional seismic surveys that 3.3 billion barrels of recoverable oil
exist under the Atlantic’s outer continental shelf and 31.1 trillion cubic
feet, or 886.3 million cubic meters, of natural gas. However, the executive arm
of the U.S. Government alone is more than that bureau. Moreover, lest this
conflict over drilling be viewed as primarily between Virginia and the U.S.
Government, it should be noted that the East Coast is not exclusive to Virginia.
Respecting the integrity (i.e., valid claims) of both frameworks requires integrity, or self-discipline. Worden
The full essay is at "Drilling Off-Shore: Strategic and Societal Leadership Applied."
