Sadly Travis Childers and Ronnie Musgrove join their GOP colleagues Thad Cochran and Roger Wicker in support of offshore drilling. In Childers defense he released a six point plan that included a lot of sound measures like increased funding for alternative fuels, with drilling only being one part of six.
Folks, this is nothing more than a distraction from the real issue facing this country of ending our oil dependence. The George W. Bush appointed Energy Information Administration released a study that I already posted about once. I think this needs repeating. This is related to OCS drilling.
The projections in the OCS access case indicate that access to the Pacific, Atlantic, and eastern Gulf regions would not have a significant impact on domestic crude oil and natural gas production or prices before 2030. Leasing would begin no sooner than 2012, and production would not be expected to start before 2017. Total domestic production of crude oil from 2012 through 2030 in the OCS access case is projected to be 1.6 percent higher than in the reference case, and 3 percent higher in 2030 alone, at 5.6 million barrels per day. For the lower 48 OCS, annual crude oil production in 2030 is projected to be 7 percent higher—2.4 million barrels per day in the OCS access case compared with 2.2 million barrels per day in the reference case (Figure 20). Because oil prices are determined on the international market, however, any impact on average wellhead prices is expected to be insignificant.
That aside I have one big question. Besides a few misguided southern Democrats this is completely a Republican issue. My question to all you Republicans:
Why did you not pass OCS or ANWR drilling during your six year period of dominance? The GOP owned the White House, the Senate, and the House, yet no drilling laws passed. Fast forward to now, and all I hear is that it is Bill Clinton or Barack Obama's fault that we have high gas prices because they opposed drilling. Huh? That does not compute. Someone from the right please explain.
