Lifting the Moratorium: Challenging a Voting Trend?

On Tuesday, October 12, 2010, the Obama administration ended the controversial six-month moratorium on offshore drilling of the Gulf of Mexico. The oil spill that began on April 20^th with the explosion and subsequent sinking of the Deep Water Horizon drilling rig lasted for approximately five months and has been called by Interior Secretary Ken Salazar “the worst environmental disaster in the country’s history.” Lifting of the off shore drilling moratorium will permit drilling to resume in the near future provided the drilling companies pass new and more comprehensive safety and security features.

According to a poll from pollingreport.com concerning the environment and energy production, as of May 25^th of this year 55% of Americans felt the environment should be given priority, even at the risk of limiting the amount of energy supplies like oil, gas and coal. After what has been one of the most devastating environmental disasters to happen to the country, many Americans are wondering why the moratorium was lifted at all.

The answer to this questions lies within the economies of the states affected by the spill, like Louisiana and Mississippi. Senator Mary L. Landrieu, a Democrat from Louisiana, states, “the moratorium was a government-imposed economic disaster. It has caused more financial harm to the state than the spill itself.” Senator David Vitter, a Republican from the same state echoes Lendrieu’s sentiment.

Although from opposing parties, both senators from Louisiana support the lifting of the moratorium. Nationally, the opinions of the parties are polarized. The Democratic Party favors the moratorium while the Republican supports its lifting. However, on this local level, both parties seem to agree. In a society where these two parties are becoming more like to opposing ideological teams and voters are becoming more heuristic in their voting techniques, the democratic candidates for the upcoming November 2^nd election do not fit into the voters increasingly plebiscitary mindset and presents a more complex decision for voters within these southern states. The voters in Louisiana and Mississippi are no longer able easily to vote along their party’s line because the issue of the moratorium cuts directly across them. Whether this stance of the Democratic candidates will effect the outcome of elections in these states will only be seen on November 2^nd.