Passage 1: by Linda Parks
1 Not too long ago, gas prices reached about $4.00 per gallon. Many Americans had trouble paying for gas for their vehicles. Although prices at the pump have dropped quite a bit in the past year, most know that it’s just a matter of time until the prices go back up again.
Even the smallest increase in gasoline prices has a significant impact on our economy. The best way to prevent rising energy costs and insulate the US from global price spikes is by actively producing our own American energy resources. Producing more American energy will lower prices, create new American jobs, reduce our dependence on foreign oil, strengthen our national security, and raise new revenue.
2 Gas prices are dependent upon the price of oil. The more oil that is available for use, the lower gas prices become. The less oil that is available, the higher gas prices become. And when gas prices go up, the costs of goods and services also go up, because it costs more to transport these items to the stores.
3 About 40% of our oil comes from other countries. Many of those countries are located in the Persian Gulf and include: Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates. These countries are in an organization called OPEC (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries). When OPEC holds up drilling, it reduces the oil available for use and causes our gas prices to increase.
4 For this reason, many in the US are calling for an increase in oil drilling in the United States. One of the best locations for drilling is in the Gulf of Mexico due to its abundant oil stores deep under the water.
5 By increasing production in the United States, we can begin to lower the amount of oil that we are importing from other countries. This helps to reduce our trade deficit and reduce our dependence on OPEC. Many OPEC countries—including Iraq—are politically unstable. This causes concern, because their governments could easily halt production or demand a price increase.
6 Increasing oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico means that we are opening up jobs for United States citizens. Most oil drilling jobs are high paying jobs and include fields such as engineering, construction, operations, and science. As these jobs open up, it creates a ripple effect into the local economy. This increases demand for local services such as supermarkets, grocery stores, clothing stores, movie theaters, and restaurants.
7 One of the reasons the Gulf of Mexico is often seen as a great place to drill is that scientists believe there is plenty of crude located under the Gulf floor. Some estimates state there is 25 years’ worth of oil, while others go as high as 100 years’ worth of oil. These are estimates based upon what we know of the Gulf of Mexico. However, the Gulf is very deep in some regions, and there is simply a lot that we don’t know about whether oil exists in this region—or even how much exists. Often, the only way to tell how much oil exists is to actually build the well and see how much we can pull up.
8 In 2010, an oil rig called the Deepwater Horizon exploded and claimed the lives of 11 people. This explosion sent millions of barrels of oil spewing into the Gulf of Mexico, which damaged wildlife, killed fish, and hurt local economies. Opponents of Gulf drilling often point to the Deepwater Horizon incident as reasons why drilling should be stopped or severely slowed down.
Passage 1:
passage one focuses on the economy and the financial burden these unstable oil rigs pose to it. they use the persuasive language type Logos by applying statistics and logic to thing people care about; people. then it goes into brief detail about the Effects of the Deepwater Horizon's effect on the local wildlife, then bouncing back to commercial uses and noted how local Fishermen and Bait-shacks were affected.
Passage 2: Save Our Shores
By Shane Thompson
On the evening of April 20, 2010, a gas release and subsequent explosion occurred on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig working on the Macondo exploration well for BP in the Gulf of Mexico. The fire burned for 36 hours before the rig sank. Hydrocarbons leaked into the Gulf before the well was closed and sealed. Eleven people died as a result of the accident and others were injured.
9 In 2010, an oil well owned by BP (formerly known as British Petroleum) called the Deepwater Horizon exploded. Eleven people were killed, and the oil rig itself sunk deep into the waters of the Gulf. In the 87 days following the explosion, approximately 3.19 million barrels of crude oil leaked into the Gulf—putting wildlife, people, and careers in jeopardy. This is considered the worst oil spill in US history.
10 Although scientists and biologists were able to soak up and get rid of much of the oil on the surface, at least 20% of the oil is thought to have sunk to the floor of the Gulf. The effects of the oil on the local wildlife were devastating. The oil spill hurt pelicans, fish, dolphins, turtles, and sea plants in a very wide area. Because there is oil still remaining on the Gulf floor, the total effect of the oil spill is not yet known. It may not be known for many years.
11 The oil drilling process has not become much safer since the 2010 disaster, and there is always risk of another explosion. Lessons were learned from the BP disaster, but it is impossible to completely eliminate all risks. Offshore oil wells are extremely complex developments. There are many moving parts with many processes developed by scientists and engineers. One small unheeded issue could cause a failure at any time.
12 Oil rigs are also financially risky. They cost millions of dollars to build and maintain, and they sometimes do not produce enough oil to be considered worth the cost. Until the well is dug, it is unknown whether oil exists in that specific location or not. Companies could dig multiple wells—which affects large areas of the environment—and in the end, still be unable to find good sources of crude oil.
13 In addition to the financial risk, the risk to the economy and local populations should not be understated. One oil spill can affect hundreds or thousands of fisherman and local small businesses. With the Deepwater Horizon spill, many small Louisiana fisheries simply went bankrupt, because they were unable to fish for quite a long period of time. Local services (such as hotels and restaurants) also went out of business as demand decreased.
14 One other reason that oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico should not be considered a good choice is that there are multiple alternative energies that scientists have yet to explore. These alternative energies may provide cheaper, more efficient, and more sustainable energy sources than crude oil. These alternative energies include: solar technologies, geothermal technologies, wind technologies, and even new vehicle technologies that should be developed.
15 When countering the opponents of Gulf of Mexico oil drilling, the biggest argument is that the United States can stop our dependence on foreign oil and become self-sufficient. The United States currently imports about 40% of the crude oil required to sustain life as is. By being such a big importer, the US is then affected by the political and economic instabilities in the Middle Eastern region of countries. Also, by importing such a large amount of oil, US consumers are at the mercy of these countries when it comes to how much gasoline costs. Should these countries raise their prices, we have little option but to accept the cost increase.
Passage 2:
Passage 2 started out on a very different tone, they started their introduction paragraph by talking about BP, and what they used to be called. then they moved on detail-wise to the eleven lives that had been taken during the incident, and the many wildlife that were severely injured or killed. then they made the mistake that Passage 1 made, and began talking about how Local Businesses were affected. after all this, they then attempted to make some "comforting" light on the situation and talked about how scientists and biologists managed to get rid of "most" of the oil, only to bring the tone back down to the dark again by saying that a whopping 20% of the oil still remained at the bottom of the ocean- how lovely. finally, this article wrapped up its pretty little pig-in-a-blanket by ranting for a good paragraph and a half about how businesses were affected by this atrocity (completely forgetting that literally Billions of Sea Life DROWNED in crude oil) and then mentioning briefly how US tax-dollars are affected by this.
