Offshore Drilling: Do the Benefits Outway the Costs?

There is a big debt right now over offshore drilling. Many environmentalists are very opposed to it, where as the oil companies and their supporters in Congress wish to support it. I think that we should learn form our mistakes and just let the oil in the ocean be left undisturbed. After all didn't we fill most of the Gulf of Mexico with five million barrels of oil, endanger hundreds of species of sea life, pollute our water and spend millions of dollars and months cleaning up the spill. This is the point that the environmentalists are arguing. They believe we should leave the oil to sit and use alternative fuel sources. I fully see their side of the story, they don't want another B.P. oil spill polluting our waters and killing hundreds of species of sea life. I also see the oil companies' side. They what to get more oil make profits, and give us a little more time to make our cars usable. I don't, however see the point in taking the chance of another oil spill. In a New York Times article stated that "Ken Salazar, the interior secretary, "acknowledged that "drilling 5,000 feet beneath the gulf or in the unforgiving conditions of the Arctic would never be free of risk."(http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/09/science/earth/us-to-open-new-areas-to-offshore-drilling.html?_r=1). This show that no one believes that nothing will happen, that there will always be a chance of having a catastrophic failure and that we will have another terrible oil spill. The oil companies may think that they have a noble endeavor, which in a way they do after all most of our methods of transportation run off oil and gasoline. This maybe true but destroying our earth even more than we have is only going to hurt us in the long run. In a 2008 USA Today article a Greenpeace activist named Melanie Duchin says "Oil smothers wildlife"( http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/energy/2008-07-13-offshore-drilling_N.htm). Truer words were never said. Offshore drilling upsets natural ecosystems and causes massive damage to the surrounding area. We cannot allow this to go on. The end does not justify the means.