Sad to say, political forces are at work concerning resumption of Gulf of Mexico (GoM) offshore drilling. Notwithstanding the thousands of deepwater penetrations that have been made without incident, the administration appears to be posturing for votes by declaring a moratorium on deepwater drilling.

The clue that the current situation is politically motivated lies in the fact that dozens, perhaps hundreds of incidents in various scenarios have occurred, none of which have resulted in moratoria. Even the infamous Minneapolis bridge collapse did not stir the bureaucrats. It did trigger a nationwide flurry of bridge and highway inspections, which reportedly confirmed that a huge number of bridges are in unacceptable conditions of rust and decay. Yet a moratorium on river-crossings did not occur.

When the whistle blows each day, legions of coal miners trudge into the pits, apparently unfazed by the long list of safety violations attributed to the most recent mine disaster in which 29 miners lost their lives. Why was a moratorium on mining not put in place?

And it seems that every other month or so, a plane falls out of the sky. So far, none of the politicos has tried to shut down the airline industry.

Although evidence was not available to support it, I understood the curtailment of drilling in the vicinity of the Macondo incident, but even that move was not supported by statistics. The offshore oil and gas industry is a model of adherence to safe practices. The industry has a century-old reputation for conservatism when it comes to introducing new technology. Every new idea or tool is tested almost to exhaustion before it is accepted to work offshore. Offshore workers are subjected to stringent physical and mental evaluations before they are accepted to join a crew. Every visit to an offshore facility starts with a professionally conducted safety briefing covering everything from evacuation plans to which fork to use for your salad in the galley that night.

No. The force that is keeping thousands of America’s finest and most productive workers landlocked has nothing to do with the remote chance that another disaster will occur. It is about politics. You know it. I know it. And the millions of citizens that populate our Gulf Coast states know it.

Perhaps the most damning evidence of politically motivated posturing can be seen in the Congressional Record, where ill-conceived bills, many authored by representatives who are unfamiliar with the oil and gas business, let alone the well-drilling business, purport to prevent recurrence of the Macondo incident before the original event has been investigated completely. It is a classic shotgun approach to problem-solving.

The same mentality was characterized in John Grisham’s novel “The King of Torts,” in which the idea was floated to sue everyone who was remotely associated with an incident, hoping to find a sympathetic jury among the populace. By punishing all offshore workers, fishermen, supply boat operators, helicopter pilots, shipyard personnel, port workers, drilling contractors, service company hands, and last but not least offshore operators, politicians hope to earn the public’s vote on Election Day. They should be careful lest the group they are trying to pander to becomes eclipsed by the number of people losing their livelihoods.

It is time we got back to drilling in the GoM. Investigate the Macondo incident thoroughly and then propose solutions. No one feels worse about the loss of life and damage to the environment than the oil and gas industry, but hands down, the industry has the best chance of engineering a practical solution. If recurrence is to be stopped, oil industry workers are going to be the ones to find a way to stop it.

Soon the American people will realize that the economy and security of our nation can be jeopardized by current events. In a time of worldwide economic hardship, does it make sense to deliberately create another economic hardship? Then where will the votes go?

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