Obama Has Opportunity to Reverse Mistake on Offshore Drilling

Campaigning
in Florida last June as a presidential candidate, then-Senator Barack
Obama blasted the proposal of his opponent, Senator John McCain, to
open coastal areas of the United States to offshore drilling. Declaring
that it "makes no sense at all," Obama correctly stated that such
drilling would make very little difference in the price of gasoline,
and supported a reduction of fossil fuel use through a stimulus program
that would create "green jobs."

But as gasoline prices soared past $4 a gallon and the Republicans
campaigned on the issue of "drill here, drill now," the Democratic
leadership softened its position. The end result was that a 27-year ban
on drilling in coastal areas off the United States was allowed to
expire.

President Obama now has an opportunity to reverse this mistake by
re-instituting the prior protection of our coastal environment.

Offshore drilling has resulted in millions of gallons of oil spills and
other forms of pollution. The expansion of offshore drilling is widely
seen as a threat to the coastal environment, as well as tourism and
fishing industries. It is also a misplaced priority, given the need for
the development of renewable energy, increased energy efficiency, and
other solutions that will slow the pace of global climate change.

The way in which the ban on offshore drilling was allowed to expire
offers a remarkable case study in the techniques of modern political
manipulation. Perhaps even more striking is the way in which the major
media outlets enabled this mass deception to succeed, by shirking their
fundamental responsibility to report the most relevant facts.

The McCain campaign took advantage of voters' anger over rising
gasoline prices with attack ads directly blaming Obama. "Gas prices -
$4, $5, no end in sight, because some in Washington are still saying no
to drilling in America," blared one influential McCain TV ad.

McCain made offshore drilling a major issue in the campaign at the
time. But there was no empirical basis for the idea that lifting the
ban on offshore drilling would significantly affect gasoline prices.
Projections from the U.S. Department of Energy's Energy Information
Administration (EIA) found that such drilling would increase world
production by about one-fifth of one percent - twenty years from now.
The EIA concluded that this was too small to have any significant
effect on oil prices.

But most Americans would never get this information. Of 267 major television programs that mentioned the proposed drilling between June 16 and August 9, 2008, only one cited the EIA finding.

As a result, the McCain effort succeeded in shaping public opinion. By
the end of July, 69 percent of respondents favored such expanded
drilling, and 51 percent said that they believed that "federal laws
that prohibit increased drilling for oil offshore or in wilderness
areas" were a "major cause of the recent increase in gasoline prices."
The response of political candidates to the election-year pressure of
misinformed public opinion then led to the change in policy.

But Barack Obama emerged as the winner, and he now has the bully pulpit
as president and approval ratings over 80 percent. Gasoline prices are
back down to $2.07 a gallon. It shouldn't be too difficult for him,
together with the Democratic Congressional leadership, to simply
explain the truth of the matter and re-institute the ban on offshore
drilling.

If President Obama is to deliver on his promise of change, he will have
to correct a number of major mistakes that were based on the mass
dissemination of lies - including most obviously the Iraq war.
Restoring the protection of our coastal areas is an easy one. He should
do it immediately.