The ongoing debate over oil drilling has propelled the problem of energy production and supply into the headlines. It may bring wider recognition of the fact that if the government had lifted the ban on drilling in untapped areas of the mountain West and the Outer Continental Shelf years ago, U.S. oil and natural gas production would be greater today, to everyone’s benefit.

Someday, we will look back on the controversy over drilling and conclude that our nation wasted huge amounts of time and resources chasing supposed threats that pose very little risk to our environment. We will also look back and agree that punitive taxes and higher drilling fees on U.S. oil companies have pushed investment overseas, reducing domestic production, jobs and revenues.

In a departure from the past, Congress recently allowed an 18-year-old moratorium on drilling on 85 percent of the Outer Continental Shelf to expire, opening up large parts of the Atlantic, Pacific and Gulf coasts to the exploration and production of oil and natural gas. These offshore areas can help meet the everyday energy needs of Americans for decades to come. The Interior Department estimates they contain at least 18 billion barrels of oil, half of it off the coast of California.

Left untapped, oil and natural gas resources are of no value to anyone. The American public favors production by an overwhelming margin. At least two-thirds of Americans in recent polls said they support offshore drilling. Oil and natural gas production strengthens our nation’s economy, generates billions of dollars in revenue for federal, state and local governments, and provides well-paying jobs for hundreds of thousands of people.

Nonetheless, some national environmental organizations have mounted a campaign to persuade President-elect Obama and the new Congress to block or sharply curtail drilling offshore and on government land in Utah and Colorado. But such restrictions could remove some of the nation’s most promising oil and gas prospects for development, while jeopardizing U.S. jobs and economic growth. Never mind that drilling in U.S. waters and on land has been conducted in an environmentally responsible manner for decades.

Companies engaged in U.S. offshore drilling have achieved an excellent safety record. Since 1980, less than 0.001 percent of the oil produced offshore has been spilled, a vanishingly small volume that’s less than the amount of oil that seeps up naturally through the ocean floor.

With new technologies such as seismic imaging and horizontal drilling, companies have been able to reduce the environmental footprint of exploration and production by drilling fewer wells even as they gain access to greater amounts of oil and natural gas.

Opening up prospective resources that lie beneath the Outer Continental Shelf for leasing and allowing the exploration and production of oil and natural gas to take place in an environmentally responsible manner might not lead to energy independence. Achieving that goal is going to require greater input from clean-coal technology, nuclear power and renewable sources. But lifting the drilling moratorium would be extremely helpful in reducing the heavy financial burden of imported oil and not having adequate supplies of natural gas to meet the nation’s needs.

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C.T. Carley is an engineering professor emeritus at Mississippi State University in Starkville. E-mail reaches him at ctcarley@bellsouth.net.