Drilling for answers

I mentioned this morning about the amazing “coincidence” that a day after republican presidential candidate John McCain said the US should lift the federal ban on offshore oil drilling, “President” Bush held a presser this morning in the Rose Garden where he called on Congress to “pass good legislation as soon as possible” that would lift that ban and open up exploring the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) while also allowing states to permit offshore oil drilling.

While Bush said that, in order to relieve the “painful level” of gas prices, “our nation must produce more oil”, he also restated his insipid demand that Congress allow drilling for oil in the Alaskan Arctic Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) because it will “bring enormous benefits to the American people.”

The problem with that statement is the fact that members of his own administration disagree… in fact, an entire Bush(whacked) department disagrees with him as a Department of Energy report that was released last month found that drilling in ANWR would do little to reduce the price of oil. And that’s not all… back in 2005 the Energy Department estimated that there are nearly 18 billion barrels of oil available in the OCS, which is roughly double the reserves in the Arctic Refuge.
Thus, by 2025, drilling in Alaska and the OCS would shave around $2.25 off the cost of a barrel of oil meaning “little to no impact on the price at the pump, today or tomorrow.”
It's painfully obvious that republicans see opportunity in high gas prices to roll back environmental policies, such as the offshore ban, that have been in place for years… but for what gain?

Drilling in ANWR would take years and years to deliver oil to American pumps and still would only meet about 4-6 months of US domestic demand.

Offshore drilling, like McCain’s widely ridiculed (even by VP Cheney) gas tax holiday, is nothing more than a gimmick to not only avoid the necessary fixes, but also an appeasement to those people that can’t use their own brains and continually follow the lemmings over the cliff.

Not to shock you, but republicans don't have a solution to high oil prices. Drilling in ANWR and off our coast would not ameliorate prices now, and wouldn't do so for many years to come. As Americans we need to understand that it’s entirely possible gas prices will never come back down, and that cheap oil is a thing of the past.

Now the question is, what to do.

I’ll talk about that tomorrow...

Old & Busted: Drill ANWR. New Hotness: Tax oil companies

Let’s take a break from the 2008 presidential campaign and focus on some idiocy from republicans in the Senate.

While Senate Democrats unveiled a new energy legislation this afternoon that would address the root causes of rising gasoline prices, the republicans were keeping an eye out for number 1.

The Democrat’s legislation, titled the Consumer-First Energy Act, proposes to raise taxes on oil companies – so naturally Senate republicans are against it – and would also halt new shipments to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, authorize the president to crack down on price gouging and increase regulation against market speculation and price-fixing… so again, naturally, the republicans are against it.

While the Dems were offering a new and worthwhile salvo in the high price of oil and gas, republicans were dragging out a stale and publicly opposed proposal; drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve (ANWR) as well as off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. But this time it has a new name; American Energy Production Act.

There’s nothing that republicans do better than name things to make them sound innocent but in reality screw the people…

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid; “Even as it costs Americans more every day to fill up their gas tanks, Bush Republicans only offer more of the same failed energy policies that brought us to this point. […]Instead of helping big oil make more money at the expense of average Americans, we are forcing oil companies to change their ways. […] We will hold them accountable for unconscionable price-gouging and force them to invest in renewable energy or pay a price for refusing to do so.”

So let me see if I get this straight; the Democratic legislation protects consumers and the republican one, I surmise, will, and I realize I’m going out on a limb here, protect the oil companies and screw the environment…

And they wonder why their ‘brand’ is going the way of “President” Bush’s approval ratings…