No Sovereignty for Oil?

This and other reports indicate that the oil industry is jumping on board the Law of the Sea Treaty bandwagon, setting up a battle between two key Republican constituencies: the energy industry and conservative intellectuals.

According to this report, oil development companies will not invest in risky undersea oil exploration efforts until property rights over such ventures are settled. But settling undersea property rights with neighboring countries such as Russia and Canada may be difficult since both countries are members of the Law of the Sea Treaty already.

I’m not sure why the U.S. can’t simply sign bilateral agreements with Russia and Canada to settle any disputes over undersea development rights. But I suppose it would be easier to join the existing Law of the Sea framework because those two countries have already agreed to those rules. If so, then this seems like a very strong policy reason to join the Law of the Sea Treaty, notwithstanding continuing objections from leading conservatives. I’m still not 100 percent sure on whether joining the Law of the Sea Treaty is a good thing, but I am certainly leaning heavily in that direction.