"Stopping Offshore Drilling Is Good for the Environment."

Not in the United States, it isn't. When BP's Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico on April 20, it began what is certainly the biggest environmental disaster in U.S. history. Four months later, the spill has finally been contained, but the political fallout has not, and many Americans would like President Barack Obama's six-month moratorium on offshore drilling in the gulf made permanent.

Yet bad as the spill certainly was, such a move would actually do more harm than good. If U.S. fields closed down, oil companies would simply take their business elsewhere, mostly to countries with much weaker environmental standards. Of course, the harm wouldn't be as visible to Americans. But protecting the U.S. coastline at the expense of other countries is hardly environmentally friendly.

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With the exception of Canada, the major oil suppliers to the United States -- Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, Venezuela, Mexico, and Russia -- all have autocratic governments that can get away with damaging their environment without any political repercussions. And they know that protecting the environment costs money and reduces profits. So, by and large, they don't do it.

Some of the resulting disasters remain local. Take Nigeria, which has about 2,000 active oil spills and spills an amount of crude equal to the Exxon Valdez each year. Oil fouls fields, rivers, and Nigeria's coast. It destroys ecosystems and sickens people, but it doesn't affect Americans.

Other environmental injuries have worldwide effects. Methane, a common byproduct of oil production, is a powerful greenhouse gas. In the United States, methane is typically captured and pumped into the natural gas system or reinjected into oil wells. Relatively little escapes. In many other countries, however, methane is simply vented into the air, where it contributes to global warming. Mexico produces less than half the oil the United States does every year, but it vents six times more methane into the atmosphere.

Finally, shipping oil has environmental costs. Oil tankers consume the equivalent of 1 to 3 percent of their oil on their voyages, which contributes to air pollution and global warming. Even worse, some tankers don't make it. The Amoco Cadiz broke up off the coast of France. The Atlantic Empress and the Aegean Captain collided off Trinidad and Tobago, and many others went down as well (the Castillo de Bellver off South Africa, the Irenes Serenade off Greece, the Torrey Canyon off Britain, the Urquiola off Spain, etc.).

From 1971 through 2009, tankers spilled more than 40 million barrels of oil worldwide (not counting oil that was spilled because of wars, sabotage, and terrorist attacks). Exactly how much was headed for the United States is not clear, but because Americans consume one-quarter of the world's oil, they are probably responsible for about a quarter of those spills. That amount dwarfs the 200,000 barrels spilled by the U.S. offshore oil industry during those years. The Exxon Valdez alone lost more oil than the offshore oil industry did in 30 years. Oil tankers are far safer than they used to be, but importing oil remains a risky business.

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