Correspondent of the Day: Wind Offers Higher Return on Investment

Wind Offers Higher Return on Investment
Editor, Times-Dispatch: Vince Haley exaggerated the economic benefits and downplayed the risks of offshore drilling for Virginians in his recent Commentary column, "Offshore Drilling Will Create Jobs in Va."

Offshore oil drilling threatens economic activity tied directly to Virginia's coastline, including an estimated $3.5-billion tourism industry. A cautionary example is a huge oil spill this past August off the northern coast of Australia. The West Atlas rig blowout has dumped an estimated 400 barrels of oil into the ocean each day over the past six weeks. Can you imagine the effects of a comparable spill on Virginia's coastline?

Haley also miscalculated the size of oil and natural gas deposits off Virginia's coast. According to the federal Minerals Management Service, deposits are very small, and more than a quarter of the oil in the mid-Atlantic region is not recoverable in a way that would make economic sense. If recovered, the oil deposits off Virginia's coast would last roughly eight months at our state's rate of consumption. (Natural gas would last roughly 30 months at current consumption rates.)

So instead of calling for a short-term "fix" for our oil and gas addiction, we should urge Virginia policymakers to embrace the benefits of renewable energy, including new jobs created by offshore wind power. The U.S. Dept. of Energy has estimated that offshore wind technology could supply more than 200 percent of Virginia's electricity needs in perpetuity.

According to a University of Massachusetts study, investments in alternative energy would also create three times more jobs than the extraction of small deposits of oil and gas in our waters. That sounds like a much better return on our investment. Dianne Saenz, Director of Communications, Oceana.


Alexandria.