Once upon a time, Muskegon, MI pumped and exported oil. And in 1929 an oil tanker in Muskegon Lake was hit by lightning, burning the ship and spilling 6000 barrels of oil into Muskegon Lake...252,000 gallons of oil.
I'm reading the history of my city and there's a listing of news headlines from the 1920s and, of course that little factoid about the 6000 barrels of oil particularly stood out, especially considering current events.
As it so happens, Michigan is the 12th largest producer of oil in America, but it should be noted there's a severe drop off in production after, like, the 4th largest producer...so there's that. But at about 1.2 billion barrels, we do suck the black stuff out of the ground as we can save for one exception...
A ban on drilling for oil and gas in the Great Lakes was passed by the Michigan congress as recently as 2002. But of course it didn't last long until right wing wackos started pissing and moaning about it and calling for a lifting of the ban.
Companies pumped oil and gas out of the Great Lakes since 1979, and to show that there's more complexity to a person than day to day politics allows, our very own Bart Stupak was the man to introduce a bill in the US house calling for the permanent banning of slant drilling in the Great Lakes:
March 13, 2001 — U.S. Representative Bart Stupak, a Democrat from Menominee, introduces Congressional legislation to ban directional drilling beneath the Great Lakes. Representative David Bonior, the Democratic House minority whip from Mt. Clemens and a candidate for governor, signs on as a co-sponsor along with members of both parties from five other Great Lakes states.
-- Article
Similar legislation is also introduced in the Michigan congress around the same time and goshdarnitall, you wouldn't guess who wanted to kill it...
June 11, 2001 – State Senator Leon Stille, a Republican from Spring Lake, announces he will introduce legislation to prevent any city that bans directional drilling from receiving money from the state Natural Resources Trust Fund.
but
He later becomes one of the strongest Senate proponents for a drilling ban.
In fact...the ban passed the Michigan house by a 98 to 7 margin and the Michigan Senate by a 28 to 5 margin.
People were simply horrified by the possibility of an oil spill in the Great Lakes...but, to dim down the nimbus of sanctimony we still continued to use gasoline and build big ass cars. We just didn't want the oil in our lake.
Nonetheless it's still environmental progress.
And yet, in 2008 when gas prices were high, the ultraconservative think tank the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, and their "senior environmental analyst" Russ Harding started calling for a lifting of the ban of drilling for oil and gas in the Great Lakes.
Perhaps it takes $4 a gallon gasoline to restore reason to U.S. energy policy. President Bush has called on Congress to lift the ban on off-shore drilling for oil and gas. Recent national polling indicates that consumers struggling with higher costs for food and energy have shifted their opinion — a majority now supports the development of offshore oil and gas reserves. This change in public opinion presents an opportune time to reconsider directional drilling for oil and natural gas under the Great Lakes, which was prohibited by state law in 2002 and by federal law in 2005.
Forbidding directional drilling was bad energy policy then and it’s bad energy policy now. Based on an analysis prepared by the Senate Fiscal Agency in 2002, continuing the practice would have resulted in an economic benefit to the state of approximately $1 billion. Adjusted for the price of oil today, the economic benefit of tapping Michigan’s Great Lakes reserves would be $3 billion to $4 billion.
State geologists estimate that approximately 30 wells could be directionally drilled under the Great Lakes.
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That's my special friend, Russ Harding at the Mackinac Center...
Did I mention that he was the director of the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality under Republican Governor John Engler?
Yeah.
There will never be a learning of a lesson regarding oil.
Peole always always be knocking at the door of every place they can to drill for oil.
There will be a lull at best.
And then they'll pop their heads up and push some more once they think we've forgotten about reasons why we didn't want to do more offshore drilling in the first place.