Paul Krugman struck paydirt today in his Op-Ed piece on offshore drilling and John McCain's political gimmickry. He exposes McCain’s offshore drilling scheme as "junk economics" that, as we well know, will do nothing to lower gas prices. Krugman also points out that McCain once opposed offshore drilling. Of course, there’s nothing like a million dollars in campaign donations from oil companies to help you conveniently change your mind. (I will admit it’s possible McCain has forgotten his previous positions, but I don’t want to play the age card here...). McCain's flip-flop on offshore drilling stands at odds with legislation he co-sponsored to limit greenhouse emissions. As Krugman puts it, the once cap-and-trade maverick is now a die-hard "drill-and burn" Republican. Beyond his exposure of McCain's political slipperiness, Krugman raises a most serious issue: how can we expect to fight global warming if we fold at the first skirmish? If Americans flock to the idea that drilling is the answer to high gas prices, then we have little chance of passing carbon tax legislation. More after the fold...
Just like McCain's (and Clinton's, for that matter) "gas tax holiday", offshore oil drilling will have no effect on gas prices now, and, probably, ever. In the ten years it takes to bring an oil field to market, demand for oil and prices will have soared. Literally, the amount of oil that offshore drilling will provide will be a drop in the bucket. Yet, McCain intentionally misleads Americans into thinking that drilling will solve our energy woes. Krugman writes:
A McCain campaign ad says that gas prices are high right now because "some in Washington are still saying no to drilling in America." That’s just plain dishonest: the U.S. government’s own Energy Information Administration says that removing restrictions on offshore drilling wouldn’t lead to any additional domestic oil production until 2017, and that even at its peak the extra production would have an "insignificant" impact on oil prices.
If not the American people, then just who does offshore drilling benefit? While the MSM has been quick to announce Exxon Mobil's record second quarter $11.68 billion bonanza (with other oil company announcements of record profits undoubtedly to follow), few have remarked on McCain's windfall profit from oil companies. Truth Progress calls our attention to a Campaign Money Watch report:
Though more drilling won’t help Americans save money at the gas pump, it has certainly helped McCain win massive campaign donations from Big Oil. A new report by Campaign Money Watch shows that contributions to McCain from Big Oil skyrocketed directly following his June speech in Houston, when he pledged his support of offshore drilling before an audience oil executives. The report notes:
In Texas alone, June oil and gas-connected donations to McCain’s Victory ’08 Fund, his hybrid fundraising venture with the RNC and state committees, reached $1,214,100.
Of that total, $881,450, or 73 percent, came after June 15. McCain announced his position in favor of offshore drilling on June 16...
McCain's pandering approach to oil politics stands in stark contrast to his presumed position on global warming. Unlike many in his party, McCain has fought for legislation to cap greenhouse emissions and do something to address climate change. On January 7, 2008, the Boston Globe attributed this quote to McCain:
"I will clean up the planet," McCain said. "I will make global warming a priority."
Indeed, McCain and Joe Lieberman introduced one of the first pieces of legislation aimed at curbing greenhouse emissions back in 2003. According to the Pew Report:
On October 30, 2003, Senators Joseph I. Lieberman (D-CT) and John McCain (R-AZ) brought a revised version of their Climate Stewardship Act of 2003 (S.139) to a vote in the United States Senate. While the measured failed by a vote of 43 to 55, the vote demonstrated growing bipartisan support for a genuine climate change policy.
McCain's web site continues to tout his plan to fight global warming:
Climate change is the single greatest environmental challenge of our time. The facts of global warming demand our urgent attention, especially in Washington. Not only does our dependence on foreign oil bring about sizable national security risks but the preponderance of scientific evidence points to the warming of our climate from the burning of fossil fuels. We can no longer deny our responsibility to lead the world in reducing our carbon emissions.
If global warming is caused by the burning of fossil fuels, then how does drilling for more oil to burn help reduce our carbon emissions? It's like giving needles and heroin to addicts and hoping they'll get clean. That's the kind of leadership that will destroy our planet, not save it. On that basis, one might ask, is John McCain ready to lead?
As Krugman rightly points out, while offshore drilling is one of many energy policy debates that demand our attention, it is the opening salvo in a much larger effort to do something about climate change before it's too late:
In themselves, limits on offshore drilling are only a modest-sized issue. But the skirmish over drilling is the opening stage of a much bigger fight over environmental policy. What’s at stake in that fight, above all, is the question of whether we’ll take action against climate change before it’s utterly too late...
...if a completely bogus claim that environmental protection is raising energy prices can get this much political traction, what are the chances of getting serious action against global warming?
Offshore drilling takes us further down the road of an already-failed energy policy. It takes us closer to a dangerous climate tipping point, one that some scientists, like James Hansen, believe we may have already crossed. It does nothing to solve our addiction to oil. It does nothing to make energy affordable. It does nothing to improve air quality, congestion, urban sprawl, and a myriad of other oil-related social, economic, and environmental issues.
Offshore oil drilling is nothing more than a sad, political gimmick, designed to divert attention from the real issues facing Americans. I just hope that we can see through this mirage before it's too late.