Monday, July 14, 2008

Bush lifting executive order banning offshore drilling

The ball is now in the hands of the Democratic Party. Just a few minutes ago, The White House announced that President Bush will be lifting an executive order banning offshore drilling on the US continental shelf--a ban, ironically, put in place by his father.

It's not time to start drilling yet. Congress, which is controlled by the Democrats, has its own offshore prohibition in place. I don't expect them to budge.

But if you want cheaper gasoline, or hey, even gas that isn't as expensive as it could be, then the choice is clear in November--Vote John McCain. Vote Republican.

And just what is the Democrats' energy plan?

Related post:

GOP: Drill here, drill now, pay less, vote McCain

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7 comments:

Levois said...

The Democrats energy plan is to have us use either bikes or public transportation instead of our gas guzzling and polluting automobiles. lol

Anonymous said...

The idea that off shore drilling is going to lighten the burden of commuters is laughable. Studies by the Department of Energy and others are clear: it will be a decade or more before any benefits will accrue to the public. As well, this approach to the energy crisis seems to be completely unaware of OPEC's recent announcement that its members have reached their peak limit of oil production for now and in the future, according to independent oil analysit Kamal Al-Harami, former president of the retail arm of the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation. The point is that in the midst of a global warming crisis, acknowledged by scientists from Jim Hansen at NASA to Arjun Makhijani, head of the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research, we need to start now to begin to wean ourselves away from fossil fuels and move toward a carbon-free, nuclear-free future. Senator McCain's position that looks forward to building, with our tax dollars as subsidies, 45 nuclear plants around the country, without any plan for how to dispose of nuclear waste is a position that looks backwards instead of forwards, and places both the U.S. and the world, at greater risk. In short, McCain's view of how to handle the energy crisis suffers from philosophical poverty and lacks intellectual honesty. -- Segundo Mercado-Llorens

Greybeard said...

Second-
Sounds like democrat talking points, straight outta the book!
Do you think anyone will read beyond the first sentence of your comment?
What a waste of John's bandwidth!

Anonymous said...

Quick question: If the think limiting our ability to drill oil "now" is a legislative order (i.e. can only be reversed by Congress), how does electing John McCain in November help anything?

Btw, the soonest we'd see oil from this is 10 years from now.

Anonymous said...

Sorry, the 5th word in my comment should be "thing."

Marathon Pundit said...

Btw, the soonest we'd see oil from this is 10 years from now.

Fine. I'm okay with that. Funny, when Bill Clinton vetoed the ANWR drilling (which I support) bill, he said the same thing. And that was over ten years ago. Your explanation won't work this time...

Nuclear waste displosal: We have a plan...Yucca Mountain, which the Dems, kowtowing to Harry Reid, opposes.

Peak oil production...hey in the 1980s, the "experts" said we'd be out of oil by the 1990s. Yes, it's finite, but we haven't used it all up yet.

Global warming. Yes, the earth has warmed up, but there is no proof that humans are the cause.

Executive order an oil drilling...the ball is in the Dems court. When the voters choose McCain this fall, energy costs will be among the reasons. Enough
members of Congress, fearing the wrath of the voters in the next election, will change their stance on offshore drilling.

What is the Dems' plan?

Thanks for dropping in Levois and Greybeard!

Anonymous said...

The point is not simply that Bush's Department of Energy has noted the lack of benfits from oil drilling for at least 10 years, but that the monetary benefit when it does come will be a pittance. So, the Republican plan for energy amounts to "Drill Here, Drill Now" so that in over a decade we will get a monetary benefit close to nothing. This is clearly not a solution to the problem of peak oil. What is a solution is a calculus of factors that include alternative and renewable energy sources, and the adoption of specific plans such as laid out in the book Carbon Free/Nuclear Free. The plan is workable and can be implemented with existing and evolving technologies. More to the point it does not rely on a resource -- oil -- which is rapidly dwindling. While the Drill Here, Drill Now campaign has a strong surface appeal, as it seems to do something, the reality is that it cannot makeup for a diminishing commodity, and will not, according to Bush's Department of Energy, result in significant monetary benefits. This is not anyone's talking point, it is simply a fact. It is time we got beyond the soundbite slogans, and actually opted to demand serious action that would have an immediate effect, both on the price of energy, and on its sustainability. That Republicans have blocked the Democrat's bill to combat speculation, a bill based on substantive testimony in Congress, because they have not been given their preferred vote on oil drilling is a position that denies American citizens relief now, according to the experts who testified in favor of the bill at the Energy and Commerce Committee in the House, in order to demand a vote on something whose benefits, such as they might be, will kick in perhaps 10 years from now. This is absurd in the extreme.