With the news last week of the two final Great Lakes states passing the Compact (the governors of MI and PA are expected to sign it after lawmakers recently passed it in both states), it seems that the final showdown over the agreement has now moved to Congress.
But before we all turn our full attention to congressional ratification of the Great Lakes Compact, we should check in on the oil drilling debate.
“Come on, Erin – oil drilling? That fight is about offshore ocean drilling and ANWR, not our beloved Lake Superior,” you remind me.
Or is it? Check out Tom Elko’s interesting post to The Minnesota Independent on June 30 to read what some of our elected officials are saying about the idea.
Interesting article. Most of the focus has been on drilling in Lake Michigan particularly down by Green Bay, WI. The problem is it really won’t do much good. The billions of barrels of oil available off-shore (including in the Great Lakes) sounds appealing but it’s just a drop in the bucket to world-wide sources. Since oil is a global commodity you have to significantly increase worldwide production in order to have an appreciable reduction in commodity prices. Opening up off-shore drilling isn’t nearly enough.
Ron Way at MinnPost has an article on this today:
http://www.minnpost.com/ronway/2008/07/09/2505/lifting_drilling_ban_wouldnt_do_much_for_gas_prices_report_says