Don Brunell - U.S. innovation is the answer to safer oil production

President Obama’s most recent drilling moratorium along the East Coast and in parts of the Gulf of Mexico fortunately may have helped our state’s crude oil supplies in the short term.

While the president recently stopped offshore oil exploration from Delaware to Florida, the moratorium did not include existing leases in Alaska’s Chukchi and Beaufort seas. However, the future of energy development in the region is uncertain. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar told Alaskans the Dept. of Interior will honor existing leases, but he is undecided about future ones.

Alaska’s North Slope has an abundance of crude oil and natural gas. It is important for our state because it is the primary supplier for Washington’s refineries that account for 30,000 Washington jobs, $1.7 billion in personal income and nearly $160 million in state and local sales and B&O taxes.

Nationally, offshore oil production from state and federal waters accounts for a third of U.S. crude oil production. In fact, the development of America’s vast domestic oil and natural gas resources that have been kept off-limits by Congress could generate more than $1.7 trillion in tax revenue and help wean us from foreign suppliers, some of which are hostile to the U.S.

American families need affordable energy from reliable and predictable sources, as do our factories, hospitals, schools and businesses along Main Street. We want it safely extracted, processed and delivered. We must apply technology and know-how to reduce the risks and respond rapidly to accidents.

We learned a great deal cleaning up Prince William Sound after the Exxon Valdez hit a reef on March 24, 1989, and many of those techniques were applied to the Deepwater Horizon blowout last April, preventing oil slicks and tar balls from washing ashore on the sandy beaches along the Gulf of Mexico coast. Most of that oil was contained, skimmed or burned before it reached shore, and BP is being held responsible for the damage.

The point here is, historically, we have learned important lessons from our mistakes. America, which has been the traditional hub for innovation, can market its energy technology and expertise and create new industries and jobs along with it.

That expertise and technology can be sold to countries like China, which last January showed a 28 percent jump in oil demand from the previous year, has offshore oil platforms off the Cuban coast and recently purchased some of BP’s leases in Pakistan.

Like the United States, China has had its problems as well. In the northeastern port city of Dalian, two oil pipelines exploded last July, sending flames hundreds of feet into the air and burning for over 15 hours, destroying several structures. The damaged pipes released thousands of gallons of heavy crude oil into the nearby harbor and the Yellow Sea.

Accidents will inevitably happen, but they shouldn’t mean that we stop all oil exploration. We just need to do it better.

It is important to remember the valuable lesson that came out of a South Seattle tragedy in 1935. On October 30, a U.S. Army Air Corp pilot and Boeing worker took off from Boeing Field in one of the first B-17 prototypes. Immediately after takeoff, it stalled and plunged into a Seattle industrial district killing both men. Investigators determined the pilot forgot to properly position a critical airworthy setting on the fuselage.

It was a tragedy, but had the War Department given up on the Boeing model, America and its Allies would not have been able to level German factories producing tanks, guns and airplanes. The outcome of the early B-17 crash was the development of the pre-flight checklists that all pilots use today to keep us flying safely.

Accidents and tragedies in energy production are not reasons to give up. Instead, they should spur us to use our expertise, technology and innovation to make energy production safer and more efficient here and around the world.

(Don C. Brunell is president of the Association of Washington Business)