McCain's Oil Drilling Hoax

Unfortunately, issues like these are too detailed for many people. McCain says he can make gas prices go down and people get happy. But I post anyway. In hopes.
Note that the price of oil has come down significantly but gas prices haven't.

RCP The prospect of significant new petroleum resources that could be available so soon would be excellent news -- aside from the obvious impact of burning still more oil -- if only what the senator said was true. But what he said actually made no sense whatsoever, as a statement about the future development of domestic oil, the alleged need to increase drilling off our coasts or the resources that such drilling might produce. So let's unpack that McCain statement (which was overshadowed by the news that his dermatologist had just removed a small lesion from the 71-year-old melanoma survivor's right cheek).

It may be true that "existing rigs" could produce additional barrels of domestic oil immediately, whether on land or in the ocean, as Sen. McCain suggests. If so, he might want to ask his friends in the oil business why those rigs aren't producing more oil now, at prices above $120 a barrel. An existing rig by definition is a rig that is operating legally on property already leased for exploration -- and can produce oil unencumbered by any environmental constraints on drilling. In case the senator doesn't understand, an existing rig is where someone has already drilled a well.
Where companies would have to install new rigs, the question is whether a lease already exists or whether the government would have to grant a new lease. New drilling on the Outer Continental Shelf would mean new leases that are now illegal.

But as the Associated Press reported last month, nearly 75 percent of the existing leases on federal lands held by petroleum companies are currently producing no oil. Those companies today hold nearly 30 million acres dormant, according to the AP. Nobody in the federal government even knows whether any exploration has taken place over the past decade.

Did you catch the news of republican Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska now being accused of accepting lavish gifts from oil companies? Where do oil companies want to drill? Alaska!

Who's pushing drilling? Bush McCain. The Bush-Cheney administration was all about oil. 

Recently, oil execs gave $1 million to McCain's campaign. 

The more we continue to rely on oil, the less attention will be paid to alternative and renewable fuels. 
AP on the oil hoax
NPR on oil drilling
The Institute for Energy Research on drilling

Bush McCain Selling Us Out on Offshore Drilling

Bush is out supporting his guy McCain with a push for offshore drilling. The difference between McCain and Bush, McCain is able to say the word "conservation" and McCain wants to stay out of the Alaskan wildlife refuge, while George would happily drill there.

But they're both wrong.

The only way to lower gas prices, according to energy economists, is to lower demand. The real solution is not a short term one. Unfortunately, our country has put off developing any sort of energy policy that's proactive. There is no short term solution.

There are only long term solutions, which includes alternative energy fuels. In the meantime, we simply have to adjust, ride our bikes, get a smaller car, move closer to work, drive less, work from home part time. We have to make sacrifices now to make up for the lack of leadership on energy in the past three decades.

Bloomberg: President George W. Bush today will urge Congress to lift the ban on offshore oil drilling, a move that is in line with a similar call from Republican presidential candidate John McCain.

``With gasoline now over $4 a gallon,'' Bush ``wants to work with states to determine where offshore drilling should occur,'' and have ``the federal government to share revenues with the states,'' White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said yesterday.

Democrats have long opposed Republican efforts to end the ban on offshore drilling that has existed in some areas since 1981. Expanded offshore exploration also has faced opposition in the coastal state of Florida, which will be a battleground in the presidential campaign between McCain and Democrat Barack Obama.

``I don't see how either house of Congress passes this,'' said Pete Davis, president of Davis Capital Investment in Washington. ``This has been a long-standing issue and the lines are very hardened.''

Still, rising oil prices are creating a drag on the U.S. economy and energy costs have become a top political issue.

Bush ``is under a lot of pressure to show that he can still be effective on an issue that matters to voters, so this is one they've pulled out of the closet,'' Davis said.

Arizona Senator McCain, 71, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, yesterday called for letting states open up more territory to offshore oil drilling, even as he promised a break from the energy policies of the Bush administration.

Obama Disagrees

Obama, 46, an Illinois senator who the presumptive Democratic nominee, said there is no evidence that lifting the ban on oil drilling would provide relief to consumers.

``This is not something that is going to give relief now, and it's not a long-term solution,'' Obama said yesterday.

The Bush-McCain motive:

As for gas prices, resuming offshore exploration would not be a quick fix.

"If we were to drill today realistically speaking we should not expect a barrel of oil coming out of this new resource for three years, maybe even five years, so let's not kid ourselves," said Fadel Gheit, oil and gas analyst with Oppenheimer & Co. Equity Capital Markets Division.

But it almost certainly would be profitable.

It's always about making the rich guys richer, folks.

McCain’s Tax Cuts Fact Check
Obama Redistribution of Wealth
Drilling at Home Wouldn’t Lower Gas Prices

Drilling At Home Wouldn't Solve Gas Problem

Republicans support drilling here, there, and anywhere, including precious places such as the Alaskan wildlife refuge, but there just aren't enough oil reserves in the U.S. to lower prices, according to a report on NPR this morning. I suspect those who support domestic drilling are just trying to look good to people who don't know any better or help their oil buddies and themselves.

In the short run, we can't reduce gas prices. There really is no short term solution. The solution has to be a long term one. The solution is more fuel efficient, alternative energy cars and other means of transportation.

Wouldn't it be nice not to have war over oil anymore? Just think if our energy policy had long ago required car makers to make gas-free autos by 2010. But our government didn't have the political guts.

Obama is proposing long term solutions, as opposed to McCain, who's still pitching the gas tax holiday, proven to be a gimmick during the primaries. McCain wants to let states decide on offshore drilling.

Obama on Tuesday blasted McCain for changing his stance on offshore drilling.

"John McCain's support of the moratorium on offshore drilling during his first presidential campaign was certainly laudable, but his decision to completely change his position and tell a group of Houston oil executives exactly what they wanted to hear today was the same Washington politics that has prevented us from achieving energy independence for decades," he said in a statement.

"It's another example of short-term political posturing from Washington, not the long-term leadership we need to solve our dependence on oil," he said.

Obama says a windfall profits tax would ease the burden of energy costs on working families. He also wants to invest in affordable, renewable energy sources.