

Oil spill demo raises concerns about offshore drilling


WRIGHTSVILLE BEACH, NC (WWAY) -- Today is the first anniversary of the Gulf Oil Spill, and because of its lasting effects, concerned citizens in our area are trying to prevent drilling off the coast of North Carolina with a street-play demonstration about "what if it happened here?"

Beach go-ers witnessed an oil spill on Wrightsville Beach today, complete with Hazmat workers and injured marine life.

UNCW Eco teamed up with Oceana, a national organization dedicated to starting a clean energy revolution, to demonstrate the negative effects of an oil spill, like ruining the beaches, harming beach animals and hurting the coast's economy.

Currently, there is no likelihood of an accident like the gulf spill happening in our area because there are no oil rigs off our coast, and clean energy advocates want to keep it that way.

"I'm from the Gulf Coast, and I've seen the devastating impacts of the oil spill that happened one year ago,” UNCW student Brinkley Hutchings said. “And today we're here to call on our leaders to wake up and really work to protect our coasts by banning all new offshore drilling and work to implement wind energy off our coast."

UNCW professor and guest speaker Alina Szmant said wind energy is not only cleaner but cheaper, and the group says North Carolina has the largest offshore wind potential along the east coast.

The mock oil spill was part of a national effort today. Demonstrations took place along the east coast and in Washington in order to try and make an impact on lawmakers.



No simpler than this, no matter how you cut it.

You cannot sustain a 300 billion dollar economy on windmills.

a call to action

to start with, it's important to stand with those affected in the gulf. and while there might be slight oil reserves in NC, companies will still drill if money is to be made. and gas drilling has some of the very same risks as oil drilling.

in this country we still use some oil for heating. by expanding renewables we could eliminate this need. we could also electrify our light auto fleet reducing the need to expand drilling. people need to start thinking about our future rather than staying in a small minded box.

So you want to get rid of heating oil.....

...and replace it with electrical resistance heating? Because that's what you'd be doing. Heat pumps can't adequately heat houses in the area of the country where oil is a dominant source of heat. Passive solar is useless under an overcast New England Winter sky.

And if that's what you want to do, do you have any idea how much that will cost the average homeowner? The conversion would be a total nighmare and the ongoing electric bills (somebody has to pay for those wind turbines) would make the average homeowner politely decline your offer.

So take it from a guy who knows the energy markets and enjoys a fantastic lifestyle because of oil, natural gas, and coal, you people live in some dream world where the term "cost-benefit analysis" simply doesn't exist.

You might want to take a few business classes while you're saving the world.

Drilling off NC Shore

We are already trying to "electrify" our light auto fleet, but that alone will not reduce our dependency on Middle East Oil significantly. You are out of touch with reality. Do the calculations.

Environmental wackos...

hard at work. I'm sure Fat Al Gore is proud of them.

oil spill


Replacing oil with wind power?

Uh....sure sweetie.

Can you explain how windmills will provide power to airliners, locomotives, tractors/large trucks, and ships?