Reporters travel the coast to talk with people about offshore drilling. This, the first of a week-long series of stories, begins the journey in Calabash.
Special Reports
The Realtors’ View
Those involved in selling real estate along the southeast N.C. coast differ in how offshore drilling might affect their business.
Oil Prospects vs. Tourism Reality
Coastal N.C. residents worry that promises of economic benefits from offshore oil and gas aren’t worth the risks to their proven, primary industry: tourism.
Industry Would Change Landscape
If oil or natural gas industry comes to the N.C. coast, it will require infrastructure and service facilities and change the way of life here.
Who Pays for Oil Spill Cleanup?
Who pays for all those people armed with mops and brushes scrubbing beaches or cleaning birds?
Potential for Disaster: Our Coast at Risk
The BP Deepwater Horizon disaster in 2010 was the worst oil spill in history with lingering effects on the Gulf Coast, but what if it were to happen here?
Industry Works to Prevent Another BP
Since the Deepwater Horizon, the oil industry has worked hard to improve the safety of drilling in deep water with better standards, practices and equipment.
25 Years Later, Studies Still Needed
A federal report done in 1992 highlighted research that needed to be done to better gauge the effects of drilling on the N.C. coast. Nothing ever came of it.
Benefits Based on Assumptions
Politicians say states’ investments needed to support offshore oil and gas development warrant revenue sharing but laws must be changed for that to happen.
Oil, Gas Revenues Vary by State
The path for coastal states receiving royalties was blazed by elected state officials who negotiated for a return on their infrastructure investments.
Drilling Pros: Jobs, Jobs, Jobs
Proponents of offshore drilling predict that a massive new workforce could be on North Carolina’s horizon if oil and gas resources are tapped in the Atlantic Ocean.
Top Jobs in the Oil Industry
Jobs in oil and gas production can be highly technical, complex, demanding and, in many cases, come with high-paying salaries.
Oil: Between a Rock and a Hard Place
Oil and natural gas come from ancient organisms – tiny plants, algae and bacteria mainly – that were powered by the sun during various stages of Earth’s geologic history.
What’s Out There?
The federal government estimates the amount of recoverable oil in the Atlantic at about 4.7 billion barrels. Natural gas stands at 37.5 trillion cubic feet – but nobody knows.
Seismic Tests Not Imminent
The Atlantic is considered a “frontier” for offshore energy exploration as it hasn’t been a target of oil companies since the early 1980s.
Oil Money and N.C. Energy Policy
With the shift of power in Raleigh came a dramatic increase in campaign donations from the oil and gas industry.
