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Is Offshore Drilling The Answer…
McCain says yes, Obama now, says maybe.
While Obama had previously been criticizing McCain’s stance on lifting the federal moratorium banning offshore drilling to help bring down the price of gas, it seems now he is willing to compromise on his position.
Last Friday, while on a two day trip around central Florida, Obama told the Palm Bay Post, “My interest is in making sure we’ve got the kind of comprehensive energy policy that can bring down gas prices.” He was quickly criticized for changing his stance and rebutted on Saturday with “What I will not do, and this has always been my position, is to support a plan that suggests this drilling is the answer to our energy problems,” Obama added.
Is offshore drilling the answer to the question of lowering the gas prices? Or is it just another band aid, that will backfire on us in the future?
If the offshore drilling ban was lifted today, how long before all systems were up and running? Environmental groups won’t let this go so easily. So years of litigation later, how did lifting the ban help alleviate the people’s woes about gas prices now. Let’s put the environmentalists aside, how long before that oil gets to a refinery and out into the market in order to bring the price of gas down now?
If speculators are driving the oil market as many tend to believe, would simply the idea that America has other options besides the Middle East and Chaves’ Venezuela for oil enough to bring the price of gas down?
It’s hard to answer those questions without actually lifting the ban and letting the wheels start turning. But once you lift the ban to drill offshore, there is no easy going back.
CNNpolitics.com has a great map of where offshore drilling is allowed and the areas where the drilling would be allowed if the ban is lifted.
The story just keeps repeating itself, back in seventies the U.S. Oil Crisis brought on by the Arab Oil Embargo against western nations, almost brought the U.S. to a stand still. In 1973, AOPEC decided to cut shipments of crude oil to western nations who supported Israel, especially the United States and The Netherlands. In order to push ahead their political agenda they used their oil producing leverage without regard to the economic effect to the rest of the world. The elevated oil prices remained until 1986.
Now, some thirty years later we are once again at the mercy of our dependence on Middle East oil, maybe for different reasons but in the same position. We have been given the opportunity of making some long term changes that can alleviate our dependence on Middle East oil once again. We did not react appropriately then. How do we react now, so that this doesn’t keep happening again and again.
Whether offshore drilling helps us become independent of foreign oil for the long term or is just a band aid, only time would tell. But one thing for sure is that lifting the ban is not a quick fix for the high gas prices at the moment. Oil is not infinite and is not good for the environment, so sooner or later we will have to find an alternative to oil. Why not now…
If we want different results, than we have to change what we do.
