Democrats Prepare to Buckle on Offshore Drilling
by Devilstower
Wed Jul 09, 2008 at 06:04:14 PM PDT
According the late Civil War historian, Shelby Foote, the genius of the American political system is compromise. But if Lincoln had compromised as enthusiastically as the current crop of Democrats in Congress, there would still be an international border along the Ohio. After giving in on FISA, now it's time to surrender on offshore drilling.
Faced with mounting pressure from voters to respond to record gasoline prices, some senior Democratic lawmakers Tuesday opened the door to a compromise with Republicans that would open more land on and offshore to oil and gas exploration and production.
Keep in mind that the "senior Democratic lawmakers" like Richard Durbin, who yesterday declared himself open to drilling, are fully aware that:
- Oil companies already hold over 7,000 leases for offshore drilling that stretch over 68 million acres.
- US Oil Production peaked in 1974 and no amount of drilling will reverse that trend or eliminate imports of oil.
- Drilling close to US shores has been the source of environmental disaster and that drilling the areas proposed this time threatens both scenic and environmentally sensitive areas.
- Drilling offshore and in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge won't affect oil prices at all in the short term, and will have very little impact in the long term.
Following on the heels of the FISA "compromise," it's starting to look as if the Democratic strategy for 2008 can be summed up as "give in on every point of contention so they have nothing to complain about in November." Which, as a strategy, is about as effective as a teenager who commits suicide to "show them all."
- ::