Sedimentary basins along passive continental margins often offer a general interest since they act as an archive for past processes. This provides an excellent starting point for the reconstruction of the evolution of passive margins. Additionally, the sedimentary basins provide economic interests since they contain vast amounts of natural resources (Grow & Sheridan, 2018). Deepwater drilling in the coastal lines has become feasible and knowledge of these areas has become of interest. More than four decades ago, the eastern coastline of America inspired and raised a concern about whether the Atlantic Ocean closed and re-opened again. This led to the emergence of the Wilson cycle of closing and opening of ocean basins with both break up of assemblies and cyclic assemblies being the centers of attention (Thomas, 2016). The alternate process of extension and contractions of the continental margin suggests a significant potential for tectonic evolution and overprinting. The involvement of the cycle led to first, the closing of an ocean and assembly of the Rodinia supercontinent in 1350 to 1000 Ma where the metamorphic and igneous rocks of the Grenville province, record the closing of an ocean and assembly of the Rodinia supercontinent. Second, the break up of the Rodinia and opening of the Iapetus Ocean, in ca 530 Ma was coupled with the isolation of Laurentia. Third, the closing of the Iapetus and assembly of the Pangaea supercontinent, and fourth, the break up of Pangaea and opening of the Atlantic Ocean (Harris & Whiteway, 2017). The US Atlantic Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) frontier remains a true frontier for the exploration of natural gas and oil, making the US a top energy producer. The US has a lot of potential for oil and gas in its offshores, but geologists have identified the East Coast as the intriguing potential but more certain in terms of oil exploration. Immediately prior to the opening of the Atlantic ocean in the Mesozoic Era, when numerous extensional and transnational basins developed along the eastern margins of North America right from Florida to Canada, and from Appalachian Piedmont eastward to the edge of the present-day continental shelf (Lister et al.,2018). The US examined up to thirty-nine onshore Mesozoic syn-rift basins, using a petroleum system-based methodology for the development and evolution of a large, but short-lived set of petroleum systems in Mesozoic syn-rift basins (Bohannon & Eittreim, 2016). Small amounts of natural gas and oil have only been recovered from the basins with insignificant commercial production established. This is due to the fact that potential reservoir rocks have low porosity and permeability with fractured igneous rocks. The administration unveiled a plan which would open the major US offshore territory to oil and natural gas drilling, including the previously protected areas of the Atlantic Oceans. The Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke proposed a new oil and gas leasing program that would run for a period of five years from the year 2019, which would make up to record ninety percent of the outer continental shelf available for explorations from the fossil fuel companies (Withjack & Schlische 2015). The plan by the Trump administration reverses the protection measures put by the Obama administration and would introduce drilling for the first time to the Atlantic seaboard. A move that has encountered fierce opposition from communities living along the East Coast of the US, however, the administration would counter with the emphasis that drilling would be done in an environmentally sustainable way, and the plan would be subjected to public participation (Skarke et al., 2018). The objective of the Trump administration was to grow America’s offshore energy industry and desist from surrendering the same to foreign shores; this would, in turn, create the strongest energy policies and make America the strongest superpower (Fears, 2018).
Pros of Proposed Oil Drillings in the Atlantic Ocean
Proponents of offshore drilling have predicted the emergence of a new workforce tapped from North Carolina’s horizon if natural and gas resources are tapped in the Atlantic Ocean. The creation of such job opportunities would be a major economic gain. Another gain would be the general growth of America's economy of more than seventy percent by the year 2011 according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics due to thousands of jobs expected to be created coupled with the nation’s strongest energy policies and regaining the superiority in energy production (Popovich et al., 2018).
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Cons of Proposed Oil Drillings in the Atlantic Ocean
The opposition to oil drilling on the other hand claim that drilling will lead to oil spills and leaks hence causing harm to the ecosystem and raising very huge opposition from environmentalists. Furthermore, the plan to have private companies begin drilling in the Atlantic Ocean as early as 2020, completely disregards the opinion of local stakeholders along the coast (Fears, 2018). The plan of Trump’s administration further ignores the risky nature of dirty and dangerous drilling with an aim of looking for an oil that may not be available. In my view, oil drilling provides an economic benefit rather than an environmental benefit. From an economic point of view, offshore oil drilling will boost America’s economy since the US consumes more than what it usually produces. By expanding offshore drilling, the reliance on imported oil would greatly be reduced and have a significant effect on consumer prices thereby lowering them (Bohannon & Eittreim, 2016). The nation’s GDP will also be expected to rise approximately to $23 billion per year by the 2030s. In addition, the states along the eastern coastline would experience huge economic benefits. The thought that more than eighty percent of the offshore has not yet still been explored and can result in 10-20 billion barrels of oil is exciting, thus projecting a thirty-year worth of imports usually done from Saudi Arabia (Fears, 2018). Finally, the prospect of creating more than two hundred thousand jobs by the target year 2035 is an appealing adventure. Environmental aspects usually raise concern, offshore drilling leads to more operations and the emergence of more processing plants which means the remittance of more carbon emissions into the air (Grow & Sheridan 2018). The argument against the risk of accidents at sea that negatively impact the environment, especially during oil spillages or even overturning tankers, the resultant effects are indisputably devastating to the ecosystem.
Conclusion
In my opinion, offshore drilling should be encouraged, especially when the economic benefits are put at the forefront. However, controllable offshore oil drilling should be the determinant factor before oil exploration to minimize the negative impacts that affect the ecosystem. When carefully done, the benefits of offshore oil drilling outweigh the disadvantages thus the activity should be encouraged just like the Trump administration is strategically planning to do in the next five years. Nevertheless, the opponents of offshore oil drilling will be right if the procedure goes against international environmental standards, and if the process will involve high fixed costs and an overly levered industry.
References
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Fears, D. (2018). Trump Administration Plan Would Widely Expand Drilling in US Continental Waters. The Washington Post, January , 4 .
Grow, J. A., & Sheridan, R. E. (2018). US Atlantic continental margin; a typical Atlantic-type or passive continental margin. The Geology of North America , 2 , 1-8.
Harris, P. T., & Whiteway, T. (2017). Global distribution of large submarine canyons: Geomorphic differences between active and passive continental margins. Marine Geology , 285 (1-4), 69-86.
In Scrutton, R. A., & Inter-Union Commission on Geodynamics. (2016). Dynamics of passive margins . Washington: American Geophysical Union.
Lister, G. S., Etheridge, M. A., & Symonds, P. A. (2018). Detachment faulting and the evolution of passive continental margins. Geology , 14 (3), 246-250.
Popovich, N., Albeck-Ripka, L., & Pierre-Louis, K. (2018). 67 Environmental Rules on the Way Out Under Trump. New York Times .
Skarke, A., Ruppel, C., Kodis, M., Brothers, D., & Lobecker, E. (2018). Widespread methane leakage from the sea floor on the northern US Atlantic margin. Nature Geoscience , 7 (9), 657.
Thomas, W. A. (2016). Tectonic inheritance at a continental margin. GSA today , 16 (2), 4-11.
Withjack, M. O., & Schlische, R. W. (2015). A review of tectonic events on the passive margin of eastern North America. In Petroleum Systems of Divergent Continental Margin Basins: 25th Bob S. Perkins Research Conference, Gulf Coast Section of SEPM (pp. 203-235). SEPM.
