June 16, 2008

McCain Energy Heads-Up: End Moratorium on Offshore Drilling (Details Tuesday)

Hatched by Dafydd

Today, John McCain gave a small preview of his major energy speech tomorrow:

Sen. John McCain said Monday the federal moratorium on offshore oil and gas drilling should be lifted, and individual states given the right to pursue energy exploration in waters near their own coasts.

With gasoline prices rising and the United States chronically dependent on foreign oil, the Republican presidential contender said his proposal would "be very helpful in the short term resolving our energy crisis."

McCain also suggested giving the states incentives, including a greater share of royalties paid by companies that drill for oil, as an incentive to permit exploration.

Asked how far offshore states should be given control of drilling rights, he said that was a matter for negotiation.

He offered no other details for his proposal, which he is expected to describe more fully on Tuesday in an energy speech.

It's not clear yet (tomorrow, I hope) whether McCain distinguishes between drilling "offshore," which he wants to be up to the individual states, and drilling on the outer continental shelf (50 to 200 miles offshore, over the horizon several times over). The idea that individual states can prevent drilling 50 miles offshore, far beyond the territorial waters of the United States (12 nautical miles), is insane. It's within our 200 NM exclusive economic zone; but, per the 1982 Law of the Sea treaty, the EEZ applies to countries, not individual states. Leaving that up to the states is like allowing them to set their own customs and immigration policy.

Astonishingly enough -- and I know you're all going to be stunned to read this -- Barack H. Obama likes the current moratorium and wants it to remain in place in perpetuity. He reverently intoned, via spokesman, the enviro-hippie mantra of Squeaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Haight-Ashbury, 93%):

McCain's presidential rival, Sen. Barack Obama, opposes an end to the moratorium, a spokesman said. Hari Sevugan said McCain's "plan to simply drill our way out of our energy crisis is the same misguided approach backed by President Bush that has failed our families for too long and only serves to benefit the big oil companies."

Generic "progressive" Democrats, such as Obama, think it the peak of absurdity to "drill our way out of the energy crisis," and they lose no opportunity to tell us unsophisticated rubes how impossible that is. The preferred plan of the anointed is to tax and conserve our way out of the energy crisis. (Rumors abound that Obama will shortly release a new plan urging the developing world to diet its way out of the world hunger crisis.)

Of course, one reason that Bush's plan for resolving the energy crisis -- more drilling and refining -- has utterly failed... is that the Democrats have repeatedly blocked it from being implemented:

  • Bush says, "we need to drill for more American oil to keep the cost down, and so that we don't have to buy billions of barrels from the Middle East and Venezuela;"
  • Democrats vote against it in lockstep, preventing it from going into effect;
  • Then they hoot that the Bush plan has "failed" -- after all, see how expensive gasoline is now?

This is worse than liberal logic... it's teen logic: Your sixteen year old son Barry gets a ticket for drag racing in the street, so you ground him; he can't drive the car for a month. Later, you spot him driving around. His argument? "You said I couldn't drive our car... you never said I couldn't drive Tony's car!"

If we let Barry get away with that, his next example of teen logic will be a real whopper... maybe yanking all the troops out of Iraq on the grounds that "we can't get in the middle of a civil war." By the time you point out that even the Associated Press admits -- very reluctantly, and with a million caveats -- that there is no civil war, and Iraq is calmer and less violent than it has been for years -- the damage is done, and Barry has already moved on to bigger, faster cars to menace more and more innocent bystanders: staggering tax increases, setting all the terrorist detainees free, inviting Iran and Syria into Iraq to take control, opening up legal marriage to any group of people of any size or gender.

It's about time we put our feet down (monkey with the plural of that expression all you want, you know what I mean). It's time to call the Democrats on their risible claim that gasoline scarcity cannot be remedied by producing more gasoline, but only by overtaxing gasoline instead.

Some political policies are so stupid and self destructive, they literally rise to the level of being anti-American.

Hatched by Dafydd on this day, June 16, 2008, at the time of 3:36 PM

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» McCain: Our only hope for cheaper gas or is he just full of the stuff? from Neocon News
In one of the few halfhearted efforts to woo the conservative base, and possibly the majority of gas-grizzled Americans, John McCain will announce tomorrow that he is for the encouragement of domestic oil drilling… to some extent that he hasn... [Read More]

Tracked on June 16, 2008 6:51 PM

Comments

The following hissed in response by: Dishman

This is Dem. SOP. Do everything they can to create a problem, and then blame someone else for it.
Oil companies saw this coming, and took steps to ensure they had a supply lined up. The spot market has more or less dried up, so those who planned ahead are reaping profits. That's the way it works, and the way it should work.

The above hissed in response by: Dishman [TypeKey Profile Page] at June 16, 2008 4:21 PM

The following hissed in response by: Steelhand

Of course this is the primary flaw of the Bush presidency; the inability to craft and implement an effective communication strategy. Scream from the top of every mountain: Hey! We've GOT oil. We can use the high-paying energy sector jobs! We can reduce OPEC dependence.

The above hissed in response by: Steelhand [TypeKey Profile Page] at June 17, 2008 5:40 AM

The following hissed in response by: KarmiCommunist

Some political policies are so stupid and self destructive, they literally rise to the level of being anti-American.

I never got into politics until right after the 911 attacks, so missed a lot of what had gone on here in America. Watched an FDR special last night – two back-to-back parts @ 2-hours each. S-c-a-r-y…

Internments…loss of Individuality…loss of Civil Rights…increased power of the Federal Government…Judiciary Reorganization Bill of 1937 (failed – well, sort of)…Social Security…etc.

Granted, the country was already in a mess before FDR, e.g. the Great Depression, unemployment around 25%, taxes were going up (“income tax on the highest incomes from 25% to 63%” and “a 2-cent tax (over 30 cents in today's dollars) on all bank checks”) as the Federal Government spent more. Anyway, apparently, FDR didn’t really help the already troubled situation, and probably added to the mounting problems. It actually took a war, WW2, to fix the economic conditions!?

That was all going on back in 1929-1945. Look at us today. Anti-Americanism is so high, that our two Presidential candidates are Obama and McCain!? FDR showed how easy it was to throw Americans into “Internment Camps” – just get enough public support against a group…any group (e.g. “right-wingers”), and raise their taxes or even "Intern" them.

Obama has strong connections to former terrorists, radical racist preachers, Islamic radicals and supporters, etc., and many Americans love him for it!?!


The above hissed in response by: KarmiCommunist [TypeKey Profile Page] at June 17, 2008 7:20 AM

The following hissed in response by: Davod

Allow states to drill of their coasts if they want to. Providing that no oil goes to states who do not want to drill.

The above hissed in response by: Davod [TypeKey Profile Page] at June 17, 2008 8:24 AM

The following hissed in response by: Jon S.

I guess we'll need to hear the details of McCain's plan, -- hopefully it will also allow drilling in the Rockies -- but to be really effective he must introduce legislation and FORCE the Dems to vote on it. He can do so by amendment to anything coming down the pike. A free standing bill will never be acted on, and of course the Dems will never let it get to the floor in either house even if we waited months for hearings -- but there is no need. Get a bill out there with a million cosponsors and offer it as an amendment to the next big ripe target that's up for a vote. Do it now, Maverick!

The above hissed in response by: Jon S. [TypeKey Profile Page] at June 17, 2008 8:25 AM

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