t is worth surveying the history of offshore exploration in British Columbia. Not only is it essential to understand the history of the issue if we are to understand the present positions of each of the stakeholders in this dispute, but surveying the history of the issue will allow us to see its trajectory over time, and perhaps to predict the future path of the B.C. offshore.
             Offshore oil drilling, for all its modern immensity, had relatively modest beginnings. The first "offshore" oil platform, erected in California in 1887, was actually a wharf extending 300 feet out from the shoreline, with an oil rig at the far end. But following World War II, the Western powers became acutely aware of their dependence on fossil fuels, and began to exploit novel sources of fossil fuels (in 1951, the U.S. executed one of the defining planks of its foreign policy, an alliance with the kingdom of Saudi Arabia, which secured the U.S. unfettered access to Saudi oil). This post-war era saw the dawn of modern offshore drilling. In 1947, the Kerr-McGee Corporation drilled the first well from a fixed offshore platform that was out-of-sight of land. By 1949, 11 oil fields had been identified in the Gulf of Mexico, and 44 exploratory wells had been drilled.
             Since that time, offshore oil technology has kept pace with the world's increasing demand for fossil fuels, and today, offshore oil technology has reached a new zenith. During the 1990s, a new depth record for drilling (7,625 feet) was set in the Gulf of Mexico, and Royal Dutch/Shell erected "Troll", an offshore platform in the North Sea, which stands in 1,000 feet of water and is 1,500 feet high. "Troll" is one of two non-natural structures visible with the naked eye from the surface of the moon (the other being the Great Wall of China). Offshore oil drilling is now conducted off the coast of nearly every continent, and exploration has even begun off the Antarctic...