When you are at your favorite beach in Florida or California, you are not at the very edge of the country.

Although it might seem like the ocean is the border of the United States, the border is actually 200 miles out from the land. This 200-mile-wide band around the country is called the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).

In 1983, President Reagan claimed the area of the EEZ in the name of the United States. In 1994, all countries were granted an EEZ of 200 miles from their coastline according to the International Law of the Sea.

There is a lot of activity just beyond the beach. The beach extends from the shore into the ocean on a continental shelf that gradually descends to a sharp drop, called the continental slope. This continental shelf can be as narrow as 20 kilometers or as wide as 400 kilometers. The water on the continental shelf is shallow, rarely more than 150 to 200 meters deep. The EEZ is part of the United States. The Federal government manages the land under the sea on behalf of the American people.

The continental shelf drops off at the continental slope, ending in abyssal plains that are three to five kilometers below sea level. Many of the plains are flat, while others have jagged mountain ridge, deep canyons, and valleys. The tops of some of these mountain ridges form islands where they extend above the water.

Most of the energy we get from the ocean is extracted from the ground. Oil, natural gas, and minerals all come from the ocean floor.

People are working on other new ways to use the ocean. Solar and wind energy have been used on land, and now they are also being used at sea.

Though this BP oil spill is terrible, we believe if more precautions are taken, the ocean is wonderful place for us to increase our own energy resources and not have to worry about foreign oil to supply us.  Don’t we want to control our own diesel fuel prices?  Having a good supply of fleet fuel, sure does make it a little easier for your fuel management needs.

Anyone in the oil or fuel management business has most certainly heard of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.  The enormous explosion that caused the spill from a BP offshore drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico was said by BP to be releasing 5,000 barrels of oil per day.  Some experts believe it’s somewhere closer to 25,000 barrels a day after looking further into it.  It’s already the worst oil spill in history, even more devastating than the spill in 1989 by Exxon’s Valdez tanker that spilled 11 million gallons of oil.  The BP rig is tapped into an underwater oil well and will continue to pump more oil into the ocean until the leak is plugged.

This obviously effects more than just the oil business as now it is a problem for wildlife fisherman, seafood business and many other jobs in the Louisiana area.  The pictures and images are miraculous.  If you visit www.bp.com you can actually see a live webcam of the riser flow.  Bp is using new technology known as the riser insertion tube tool to try to collect the oil.  This remains uncertain as there are still various efforts by the government and other parties to determine a more educated flow rate.  Even film star Kevin Costner is joining scientists and engineers to figure out a way to clean up this mess.  BP is considering his idea.  At this point what do they have to lose?  The diesel fuel prices have not gone up because of the spill, isn’t that strange?