Delicious
Digg
StumbleUpon
Newsvine
Facebook
Google
Yahoo
TechnoratiSenator McCain and the Republicans in Congress are calling Senator Obama and the Democrats environmental wimps for refusing to allow the oil industry to drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, environmentally sensitive offshore areas and anywhere else they please. The Republicans are claiming that the Democrats don't care about Joe Sixpack, who now has to pay $4 a gallon for his gas. Nor do they care that most of this oil is now imported.
In addition to concerns about the environment, one major reason that Democrats oppose drilling is that Joe Sixpack will never notice the effect of any oil recovered from these areas, even if we did allow drilling. According to independent experts such as the Energy Information Agency, there is too little oil in the offshore protected areas to have any noticeable impact on gas prices.
In other words, we are not debating about helping Joe Sixpack pay for his gas. We are only arguing over whether to put environmentally sensitive areas at risk for nothing. The Republican claims about the impact of drilling on oil prices simply are not true.
But we all know that politics is about the art of compromise, so there is a simple compromise that opponents of drilling can put forward. Since the drilling advocates are telling us that increased drilling will bring down the price of gas, there is no reason not to take them at their word. Why not just give them the green light to drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, the Florida Coast and other offshore protected areas, Mount Rushmore and anywhere else on the planet that they want.
However, open drilling season comes with a simple quid pro quo. The oil industry gets slapped with a windfall profits tax that takes away any revenue in excess of $3 a gallon. Since we know it takes time to search for oil and drill wells, we can even give the oil boys a six-month grace period before the windfall tax takes effect.
Based on what Senator McCain and the Republicans are telling us, this windfall profits tax shouldn't be of any concern to the industry. After all, opening up these protected areas for drilling will lead to a huge gusher of new oil on the market. This increased supply should push the price of gas back below $2 a gallon. According to McCain and the Republicans, once we declare open season for drilling, $4-a-gallon gas will just be a bad memory of what happens when you let environmentalists run the country.
It would be interesting to see the response if Senator Obama or Democrats in Congress put forward this proposal. If McCain and the Republicans believe what they have been saying, then they should have no problem putting a windfall profits tax provision into their bill, since they know it will have no effect. On the other hand, if they believe what all the experts are saying - that additional drilling will have no noticeable impact on oil prices - then they will strongly oppose this bill, since it would be a huge tax on their friends in the oil industry.
In short, this compromise "drill anywhere" plan is a simple way to force Senator McCain and the Republicans to tell the country whether they really believe that drilling in protected areas will lower gas prices, or whether they are knowingly making false claims for political gain. The "drill anywhere" plan will make them tell the truth without waterboarding.
Dean Baker is the co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR). He is the author of The Conservative Nanny State: How the Wealthy Use the Government to Stay Rich and Get Richer (www.conservativenannystate.org). He also has a blog, "Beat the Press," where he discusses the media's coverage of economic issues. You can find it at the American Prospect's web site.
18 Comments so far
Show Allno no...Americans need to drive less. Sell your house! Buy a bicycle, like every other citizen of most nations do! Move out of your apartment to live nearer to your place of employment!
That is all. Problem solved! :D
It's pretty obvious the energy companies want the price of oil/gas kept very high hence more hugh profits for them. A land grab of everything in sight is mostly for later use in my opinion - when Bush is out of office and years after. It's also obvious to me that the two oil men in the white house have given free reign to the oil bunch to rape, pillage and burn as much as they want on this earth - and the oil companies seem to be working over time at destroying this planet whether it's private lands, public lands or whatever. Want to see what happens with drilling - here is a web site that shows just one small area on the Western slope of Colorado. The oil companies are destroying this once beautiful valley and public lands with pristine forests - bulldozing down trees in mass, wildlife leaving, contaminating water with benzene and other toxic chemicals and poisoning the air we all breath. And the more they drill, the higher the price of oil and gas - so seems drilling is not the answer to this. Seems to me there should be places left untouched for us and future generations to have. Check out the web site along with the videos - it shows some of what can happen when drilling moves into your neighborhood. web site: http://www.journeyoftheforsaken.com
This "Drill Anywhere" plan is idiotic. Obviously, it doesn't solve the problem. Powerdown--the party is over. We need to face the transition to a post-petroleum future.
The question before us: "How stupid does this corporate-led storyline get?"
Drill in McCain's ass--that's a sure thing, there's something big there.
hemp4victory,
I hear you. I don't think that the Left or Right really cares to fix the energy crisis. Much as I would love to see energy generated from solar panals, wind turbines, and even tidal and geothermal in addition to hemp, both sides refuse to admit that the only reason demand for fossil fuels is OBSCENELY high is both sides flatly REFUSE to support technological improvements in efficiency and conservation. Right now, it's election season and none of the blogosphere even wants to admit that just like every election year, it's that time when gas prices will be artifically "lower" only to rise once election season's over by the year's end. I for one am sick and tired of people lecturing about solar and wind when they don't even mention the fact that their "lovely" BIG GOVERNMENT is tied to special interests such as Home Owner's Association in passing those politicized zoning laws to prohibit more people from installing solar panels and wind turbines despite the fact that they're much safer than even a pole line. I am also sick and tired of people crying "WAH ! WAH ! We must stop digging for oil ! WAH ! WAH !" and yet these hypocrites not only guzzle around in their fuel inefficient vehicles or even fly around like Algore but when you try to tell them about the true benefits of hemp over petroleum, they'll call you "pot smoker" or frame it as "another biofuel scam" when in fact as you pointed out there is a major difference between using corn for biofuel and hemp for fuel. At this point, the Far Right and the Far Left will have to learn their lessons the very hard way. Much as I hate to say it, both sides are a bunch of sloppy pigshits so let's FIRE UP the COAL, OIL, GAS, and NUCLEAR, DRILL all those reserves and build those goddamn nuke power plants so we can put the SLOP for all those pigshits to MOOCH off of, and LET THE SYSTEM COLLAPSE.
GOD WILL CONTINUE TO SEVERELY PUNISH AMERICA TO ETERNAL DAMNATION !!!!
What a disappoint. I was thinking more people would find out that instead of drilling for what little oil remains or drowning ourselves with another war for oil, the smart response is to end the "war on drugs", remove the ban on industrial hemp so that it can be allowed to compete with crude oil on the market, and let's all find out that hemp replaces petroleum in everything and yet returns a healthy yield unlike most biofuels especially corn-based ethanol, saves the environment, cuts down on global warming, and is good for small/local business. Sad that most people still don't know what really hit them at 70+ years. When you all are done beating the dying horse that is crude oil, come over and learn about industrial hemp for a change.
The rush for new drilling is to ease the us reliance on foreign oil. Once they control enough domestic supply, they can rip us off themselves instead of watching the foreigners have all the fun.
obama has not compromised on anything......remember whoever wins in november,still has to get CONGRESS to pass any new drilling legislation....IT'S NOT GOING TO BE THAT EASY even for the republicans....
"Better idea: nationalize ExxonMobil"
Yess !!!! A critical resource should not belong to a company, it should belong to the government.
RUTH K: Good post.
It's so tragically ironic that due to reliance on oil a war is being waged that is more quickly using up oil, driving up its price (although this may have been the plan as far as the oil czars go) and depressing large segments of the world economy, while compromising the long-range integrity of the planet's interlocking ecosystems.
And still the same paradigm! And still so little $ diverted to green industries, or educating the public to work towards greater conservation, or downsizing the military whose oily footprint is everywhere, decimating life like a bad giant stepping on living forms in its path.
This is truly the end of the Piscean Age... and Pisces is the sign of the sea kingdoms, and said to govern oil. Fascinating that the Mayan calendar, the Hopi Prophecies, the astrological count of time and Michael Klare's "The End of Oil" so closely coincide... added to the fundamentalist Christian "End Times," a belief system which has acted to "bring it on" and quite truly court disaster. Makes one wonder what would qualify as wake-up call? A seismic event off the coast of Manhattan Island? A fault line does exist off the NE coast... what would it take?
Obama has already "compromised" w/o even being asked.
1) He now supports off-shore drilling, as long as it is done in an "environmentally resposnsible" manner. Well, OB, there is no clean way to drill offshore. Not to mention the fact that it is impossible to drill our way out of the long-term energy situation, or even to lower gas prices by drilling more.
2) OB wants to exchange light crude in the federal energy reserves with heavy crude and put the light crude on the market. There are numerous problems with this proposal. Heavy crude is of lesser quality, harder to refine and causes more pollution. That's a pretty bad trade.
The federal energy reserves themselves are highly problemmatic because the oil is stored in salt chambers and may become polluted. Not to mention the fact that the feds overpaid for it in the first place.
The last thing in the world that anybody needs is for the Dems to offer any more compromises about anything. If a windfall tax is a good idea -- which it seems to be -- then get out there and fight for it because it's the right thing to do.
They already have rights to drill on about 68 million acres, including 30 some million off-shore. Why haven't they done so? Probably because it cost money. They would rather rake in profits, claim the democrats are causing the problem, and sew up rights to drill anywhere.
I like the joke that says if we give Exxon-Mobile exclusive rights to the sun, the whole earth would be powered by solar energy tomorrow.
God damn right it's a land grab while the two oilmen are still in the House. But what is there to expect from a populace that gave us eight years of Bush and Cheney? Scared stupid sheep will do anything that seems easy.
The oilies will have to do some serious spinning to counter this proposal.
Why nationalize ExxonMobil if you can socialize it?
I can't tell the real difference between Democrats and Republicans on this issue.
The Democrats are willing to compromise, even though they know drilling will have little impact on the American consumer.
The Republicans have wanted to drill for years. Many American consumers like this because they believe the repugs and think the price of gas will plummet. The oil companies love it because it means more profit for them.
So the republicans look good standing up for the consumers and get the support of oil companies. The democrats don't want to anger the oil companies or the people and will compromise even though they know it won't help a soul.
Bottom line:
The Dems are hypocrites and corporate lackeys
The Republicans are liars, cheaters and corporate lackeys
The American consumer continues losing
The American environment loses
The elite win again!
Better idea: nationalize ExxonMobil
Clever idea! Of course they're not drilling now in the millions of acres they already have because they want to keep the price high, don't they?
I just cannot believe how many people think we can drill ourselves out of this mess!
this whole thing is about land... a BIG LAND GRAB! big oil really does not want to drill...they just want the acres......let me ask everybody a question? do you think big oil wants to LOSE PROFITS ? they don't really want more supply on the market...they want to CONTROL the market........