Clay Hamilton

Bailey, Ronald. "Offshore Drilling Remains a Risk Worth Taking." Oil Spills. Ed. Tamara
Thompson. Farmington Hills, MI: Greenhaven Press, 2014. Current
Controversies. Rpt. from "Weighing the Benefits & Costs of Offshore Drilling."
Reason Foundation. 2010. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 26 Oct. 2014.

The benefits of offshore drilling outweigh the risks of it. If we produced 10 billion
barrels of oil then at least 323 billion dollars would be made if we were selling the oil at fifty
dollars a gallon. The boost that this would give the economy far outweighs the risks of offshore
drilling. The media way over exploited the BP oil spill. All that needs to happen to keep that
from happening is to make sure that all safety regulations are followed on the oil rigs. The cost
of repairing the damages caused by the oil spill will be at maximum 1.2 billion dollars which is a
drop in the bucket compared to the 323 billion dollars that will be made if we allow offshore
drilling.
This article does a good job talking about the economic benefits of offshore drilling. It
talks a lot about the money involved in it and how much the economy can benefit. However it
does not address the issues caused by the BP oil spill. It fails to mention the environmental
problems that occurred because of the spill. It said that the media blew the effects out of
proportion but gave no facts to back it up.
I will use this article in my paper. I only will use it for the economic side of offshore
drilling. I wish that the article would have addressed the problems with offshore drilling. But
instead it only talked about the economic benefits and failed to address other issues.
Clay Hamilton

"Offshore Drilling Still Urgently Needs Reform." Oil Spills. Ed. Tamara Thompson. Farmington
Hills, MI: Greenhaven Press, 2014. Current Controversies. Rpt. from "Lingering Threats:
One Year After Gulf Oil Disaster, Offshore Drilling Still Urgently Needs
Reform."

Biologicaldiversity.org. 2011. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 26

Oct. 2014.

This article addresses the fact that the offshore drilling regulation in place need to be
changes. The BP oil spill could have been stopped way sooner had the tools used to stop the oil
spill once it starts actually worked. They had all passed inspection and testing but when the
time came for them to actually work they failed. The article also says that there should be a law
against drilling in the arctic since we don't know if we would be able to stop an oil spill if one
occurred.
The article is written in a very nice format. The author has ten points and the author lays
those points out by putting them in bullet points and giving the reason for the point after naming
the point. I really like this as you don't have to dig around the entire article to find the
information supporting the points that the author makes.
I probably will use this article as it is not directly against offshore drilling. It does a nice
job of addressing concerns with offshore drilling but it also gives ways to help get offshore
drilling safer for the environment. The author supports offshore drilling if some safety measures
are adopted before the drilling occurs.

Clay Hamilton
Peterson, Charles. "The Gulf Oil Spill Illustrates the Special Risks of Deepwater Drilling." Oil
Spills. Ed. Tamara Thompson. Farmington Hills, MI: Greenhaven Press, 2014. Current
Controversies. Rpt. from "A Tale of Two Spills: Novel Science and Policy Implications
of

an Emerging New Oil Spill Model." BioScience 62 (May 2012). Opposing Viewpoints in
Context. Web. 26 Oct. 2014.

This article outlines the fact that we dont really know all the effects of a deepwater oil
spill. The deepwater oil spill that BP had not only affected the surface of the water but inside of
the water as well. The water-soluble compounds in petroleum were dissolved into the water
before they escaped to the surface and into the air. We dont know what effects this could have
on the plant and animal life in these areas of the ocean.
The article does a really good job of using facts to back up its main points. It points out
the fact that many pro deep sea drilling people ignore. Most people don't care to recognize the
fact that we don't know the effects that oil spills in deep sea water have on sea life. The article
points out that we should do more research on what these effects of this before continuing deep
sea drilling.
I will not use this article in my paper as it addresses only deepwater drilling. This article
addresses some of the problems with offshore drilling but mainly focuses on deepwater drilling.
I don't plan on addressing deepwater drilling in my paper so this article doesn't really do me any
good to include as a source.
Clay Hamilton

Jason, Gary. "Domestic Oil Resources Will Reduce Foreign Dependence." Foreign Oil
Dependence. Ed. Ronald D. Lankford, Jr. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2013. At Issue. Rpt.
from "Green Dreams, Green Nightmares." 2011. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web.
8 Nov. 2014.

This article written by Gary Jason focuses on how much the United States would benefit
if it opened up more oil drilling operations in the United States. Jason speaks of how the United
States could cut oil imports by sixty percent if they would maximize the oil drilling of the
reservoirs that we have already tapped into. He states that it is ridiculous to spend money on
green energy projects. If you look at France you would understand that the money spent on these
projects is wasted because the projects have failed to overcome the necessary evil of fossil fuels.
Jason does a good job focuses on why we should allow more drilling to occur in the
United States. He speaks of oil drilling as a necessary evil because we live in a world that relies
too heavily to just completely do away with fossil fuels. We have not come up with the
technology to become fully dependent on green energy.
I plan on incorporating this article into my paper because it focuses on fracking.
Fracking is one of the processes of getting oil that has recently been started in North Dakota.
This process is different than offshore drilling and I plan on focusing on fracking in my final
paper.

Clay Hamilton
"Hydraulic Fracturing Can Be Done Responsibly." Fracking. Ed. Tamara Thompson. Detroit:
Greenhaven Press, 2013. At Issue. Rpt. from "Hydraulic Fracturing." 2012. Opposing
Viewpoints in Context. Web. 8 Nov. 2014.

This article focuses on shale oil deposits in the United States. The article talks about the
safety concerns of hydraulic fracturing and how if done right it should not do any damage to the
environment or people. The article talks about ExxonMobil and how they have been using the
process since the 1940s. ExxonMobil has a proven system in place that prevents damage and
keeps the fracking process safe. They have a group dedicated to the safety of oil fracking.
The author of this article does a good job using history to relate to todays benefits. I
really like how he showed that the process of fracking has been around for a long time but has
only become popular because of the oil boom in North Dakota. He also shows how many oil
companies are secure in their processes because they allow the public to see all of their records.
I will use this article for my paper because it does a good job talking about the safety of
fracking. The author uses these historical examples that can be easily incorporated into my paper
to give more background on the process of fracking. He also gives examples of places in the
United States where more drilling could be safely done and this is really key information for the
thesis of my paper.

Clay Hamilton
"Hydraulic Fracturing Should Be Banned." Fracking. Ed. Tamara Thompson. Detroit:
Greenhaven Press, 2013. At Issue. Rpt. from "The Case for a Ban on Gas Fracturing."
Vol. iv. 2012. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 8 Nov. 2014.

This article talks about the dangers of hydraulic fracturing. It talks about how the process
of fracking can release dangers gases and chemicals into the air and water supply surrounding
the areas where the fracking occurs. The article focuses only on the dangers of fracking and
none of the benefits. It talks about how there aren't many regulations on fracking and how this
causes much more damage to the environment then is necessary.
The article does a good job making you care about the dangers of fracking. It talks about
the dangers that it can have on kids and innocent civilians that don't even know they are being
effected. It talks about how cancer can be caused by the gases give off by the fracking process.
However the article is very one sided and doesn't even give any benefits of fracking at all. It only
focuses on the negative side and doesn't give any solid evidence that the bad effects of fracking
outweigh the good.
I will not use this article in my paper. It solely focuses on the negative side of fracking
and doesn't back it up with any statistics. Most of its major points are addressed and refuted in
some other articles that I have read. So I will just use those articles that give both sides of the
argument instead of sticking only to one side and ignoring the other side of the argument
completely.