Sure, oil shale exploitation, opening off-shore and ANWR to drilling, and the gas tax holiday won't do jack to solve our current high prices at the pump. Sure, the motives behind many of the GOP proposals are suspect and rife with connections to Big Oil's deep pockets. Sure, the blame for the high prices rests with a broad range of market fundamentals and speculative pressures that defy a simple solution.
Still, "drill here, drill now" will probably lower gas prices and it's thinly veiled extortion
Oil companies are absolutely salivating at the opportunity to obtain more domestic leases that up until now have been completely off limits. When John McCain says "The oil executives say within a couple of years we could be seeing results from it. So why not do it?" there's a real danger there and a message. Oil companies are making enormous profits right now. Exxon is making more in profits than any other company in history. With that much money to put to use, it doesn't seem outlandish that some really big players might be able to influence the futures market and ultimately the price of oil. Considering that the estimates of speculation driving prices up as much as 50%, we already know market distortions are possible.
Even easier would be to open the spigots at the refinery level and invest in some production capacity. A temporary change in fuel mixtures or delivery methods could show up immediately in the price at the pump. Depending on how badly they want to prove their point, it's even possible with such a large cash cushion that Big Oil would be willing eat part of the cost of gasoline and diesel.
With the resources that they have to directly or indirectly affect gas prices, oil companies can and probably will play carrot and stick with Congress. If Big Oil isn't happy, we can hope like hell that we get some real alternatives before they tighten the screws too much. Otherwise, it's going to be really hard not to give in to those bastards. When McCain directly attributes his energy platform to oil executives, it may not simply be a sellout to some of his biggest campaign contributors but also a rare moment of pragmatism as he realizes that they really do have us over a barrel.