Keep Up The Pressure On Drilling

National Review: The Democrats Find Themselves On The Wrong Side Of The Energy Issue

(National Review Online)  This column was written by The Editors.

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To drill or not to drill? According to recent polls, two thirds of Americans think Congress should lift restrictions that prevent energy companies from exploring the outer continental shelf for oil and natural gas. President Bush, John McCain, most Republicans, and some Democrats support lifting the ban. Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, and Harry Reid find themselves on the wrong side of the drilling question, and it has thrown their party into disarray.

All three Democrats are tangled on the same tripwire: Their friends in the environmental movement want to stop oil exploration. Unlike most politicians, who face public outcry when gas gets pricey, environmental groups are willing to argue that gas should to be more expensive in order to make alternative sources of energy seem cost-efficient by comparison. It’s not just that they oppose new drilling; they also support a windfall-profits tax on the oil companies, new restrictions on current oil production, and the elimination of tax provisions that allow energy companies to write off the cost of expanding refinery capacity.

By making gas cheaper, increased domestic oil production would prolong what environmentalists see as America’s harmful dependence on fossil fuels. These groups would oppose offshore drilling even if it had no direct impact on the environment.

Obama echoed this thinking in June, when a reporter asked him if high gas prices could help wean the U.S. from its dependence on oil. Obama answered that they could, even though he “would have preferred a gradual adjustment.” That same month, he said that McCain’s drilling proposal “would only worsen our addiction to oil and put off needed investments in clean, renewable energy.”

That was then. In July, Rasmussen released a poll showing that 67 percent of Americans support lifting the ban on offshore drilling, and now Obama appears to have reversed his position. If “a careful, well-thought-out drilling strategy” were attached to “the kind of comprehensive energy policy that can bring down gas prices,” he said in an interview with the Palm Beach Post, he wouldn’t “want to be so rigid that we can’t get something done.”

Obama’s reversal coincides with the news that Nancy Pelosi has given at-risk Democrats permission to publicly support offshore drilling, freeing them to take the popular position while she blocks any efforts to lift the ban. Pelosi refused to allow any votes on drilling before adjourning the House for a five-week August vacation. A number of House Republicans stayed in Washington to hold protest sessions, arguing that Congress shouldn’t be taking a vacation at a time when high gas prices have caused many Americans to cancel theirs.

In the Senate, Harry Reid (“Oil makes us sick, . . . It’s ruining our world. We’ve got to stop using fossil fuels”) also blocked energy legislation for fear that Republicans would offer drilling amendments and force Democratic senators (such as Barack Obama) to commit to positions. While their counterparts in the House are keeping the issue alive in Washington, Republican senators headed home to spend all five weeks talking about energy.

In both houses of Congress, the Democratic leadership has offered gimmicky solutions to distract the public from the drilling issue. First, Democrats argued that the oil companies had already leased millions of acres of public land that they weren’t using to produce any oil. That effort foundered when the oil companies pointed out that they weren’t producing oil on this land because they hadn’t found any when they explored it.

Then, Democrats pointed the finger at commodity traders, accusing them of driving up the price oil through “excessive speculation.” This effort didn’t gain any traction, either. Traders don’t conspire to drive up prices; they try to anticipate movements in supply and demand - so of course, as U.S. demand has slowed (and as an increasing number of U.S. policymakers have argued for increasing supply), the price of oil futures contracts has fallen.

The latest half-baked idea comes from a “gang of ten” senators - five Republicans, five Democrats - who have offered a compromise that would lift the ban on offshore drilling in exchange for $20 billion in new federal spending on alternative sources of energy. The list - ag-friendly guys like Saxby Chambliss and Kent Conrad, corn-staters like Ben Nelson and John Thune - smells of ethanol. The compromise bill includes $2.5 billion for biofuel research and billions more in incentives for automakers to make cars with ethanol-burning engines. There might be a smart way for Washington to subsidize research into alternative energy, but this isn’t it.

There is a simpler solution. The congressional ban on drilling has to be renewed each year, and the current ban expires in September, so congressional Republicans and President Bush should fight to stop the ban’s renewal. The Democrats are backpedaling like mad. Their presidential candidate doesn’t have a coherent position and has resorted to Carter-esque lectures on energy conservation. Meanwhile, the speaker of the House is telling vulnerable members of her caucus to support lifting the ban.

The Democrats find themselves on the wrong side of the most important issue to Americans right now. Now is not the time for a compromise. It’s time to keep applying pressure.

[coryellco]

Posted by jayblrdi at 10:00 PM : Aug 07, 2008 oil companys dont have to drill to find oil they use groung thumumping and maping to find out where the pockets of oil are...theirs no use spending 1 to 2 million dollars to sink a hole on the land they have leased now if the amount of oil they can recover is not going to cover all the cost incured....use your gray matter and think

[coryellco]

Posted by walt1944 at 11:51 AM : Aug 08, 2008
you know it seems funny to me that all the enviro nuts dont like oil....but they use it ...they wont let us take this nasty stuff out of the ground(its a pollutant)but at the same time if we had it as a byproduct that we could not use for anything they would not let us put it it the ground where it is now now that makes you wonder what koolaid their drinking

[chatmandu002]

OIL... it''s not about the price it''s about the dependence. I''ll pay the $4 bucks for more for a gallon of gas just as long as we can become independent from countries that don''t like us. Drill off-shore and in ANWR now and continue developing new clean sources of energy ASAP.

[walt1944-2009]

Once again, the neocon Fascist Nazi "rag sheet", the NRO, shows its logic (or LACK thereof), by demanding off shore oil drilling begin immediately, if not yesterday, and that all the neocon Fascist Nazi Republicans are right on the issue, while most evil, cowardly Whimpo-crats are wrong!

Not a peep has been mentioned about the umpteen thousand leased acres the oil companies already have to drill on, but won''t, even when its been proved there are gas and oil reserves under the ground on this land.

And even if they do drill on this land, what gaurentee do we have that WE and not still-RED China won''t end up with the oil? Besides, apparently the neocon Fascist Nazis believe that by blinking their eyes, oil rigs are going to sprout overnight like mold or fungus.

The biggest question that NO neocon wants to address is what happens when the oil RUNS OUT and our planet looks like Mars????? I guess we send oil rigs to Saturn''s moon, Titan, where there are supposed to be lakes of oil, and ruin that planet!

When it comes to logic, neocon Fascist Nazi Republicans are totally stupid, and the problem is, they convince most of us to be toally stupid with them!!!!!

SIG HEIL, BUSH!!!!!
sig heil, "DRRRRIILLLLLLLL!" McCain!!!!!

[justathough1]

Why do our oil companies''Exxon'' and others pay Iraq and other countries Royalties to explore and drill and those areas but demand and get Tax breaks from the US to explore and drill here. They make a profit there or they would not do it. They just make more from the US, because a couple of TV adds make you believe it''s the right thing for you.

[markangeloo]

Amerika cut down the redwoods
& made fenceposts !!
This profligate generation doesn''t
deserve the oil. Future civilation
will curse that we burned up this
valuable polymer building block.
OIL ON THE BRAIN
DRILL THERE

[justathough1]

Don''t forget oil is an international comodity. When oil is produced from this drilling(10 yrs?) It will sell at the going rate. maybe $200 a brl then? If that is the case why push so hard, if it will only equal 1% of the US total production? Profit! We the consumer are not going to be helped. Big Oil knows if Obama wins, and they push for altern. energy with tax breaks, that our reliance on oil may go down, and they''d never get a chance for the offshore rights they want. So they are pushing hard to get the rights now, while Bush in in office, for future profits. It''s not going to help You, now or in the future.

[atheismwins]

Apparently Democrats are now against voting.

Unfortunately for them, there are still laws that we hold elections.

[talkingham]

There is No oil shortage. I know this is true because they are literally giving gas away at $3.79/gal this morning. We all know demand has doubled or tripled in the last year alone right? just like the price.

Neocon Mission Accomplished!

[tejasdemo]

Total BS

[atheismwins]

Do the liberals here support votes in Congress on this issue?

[rkimball3]

"if oil compamnies acted on these lands years ago that they had arleady leased & had built some new refineries when offered,we would be seeing the benefits now of lower gas prices" rafterman1.


very true. maybe it''s time to nationalize the oil industry & pay the oil ceos a civil servant''s wage without any bonuses.

[jjp735i]

"The Editors". What a joke!This story is nothing more than more Republican spin. "The Editors" left out the FACT that it will take until 2030 to get any oil from off shore drilling and "The Editors" left out the FACT that any new oil will only bring in about 3% of what we use anyway.

"The Editors" are nothing more than Bush/McCain spin doctors.

[rkimball3]

it is best probably not to drill. to do so will enrage pelosi yet more. the gop needs to work with her not against her. to do so will only cause more gridlock with nothing accomplished on the hill.

[yongamerica]

The oil industry has hundreds of millions of acres on land and in the Gulf of Mexico, but none of it has been exploited. The oil industry is raping America. It is taking the oil that belongs to every American and sells it back to them at $4.00 a gallon.

If the government can''t see this they are Zombies controlled by the oil industry.

[oneworldusa]

Drill NOW. Who cares if it takes 10 years to see the benefits. That''s 10 years sooner than it will be if we don''t. Also, if production is severely interrupted by our current providers, we will be on our way to a supply already, rather than after the fact.

Additionally, remember what happened with Hurricane Katrina. A few more of those, and what supply we do have now without options will be severely interrupted and the prices again will skyrocket overnight like they did before.

We need to drill now while we reinvent our transportation systems.

[andor3]

"Keep up the Pressure" = more political theater to distract from real solutions and allow petrobiz and Republicans to shrug off their responsibility, and channel peoples anger at fuel prices in the wrong direction.

[andor3]

"Keep up the Pressure" = more political theater to distract from real solutions and allow petrobiz and Republicans to shrug off their responsibility, and channel peoples anger at fuel prices in the wrong direction.

[irliberal]

Oh, I forgot - where regionally applicable - geothermal.

[irliberal]

Solar, wind, hydro, nuclear. These renewable energy sources (well nuclear might not be considered purely renewable but it might as well be for practical purposes) along with additional work in battery technology is the future of our planet. More oil just postpones the problem. It''s time we faced facts and started working on solving it.