No Offshore Drilling: Yes, I mean Obama, too

August 3, 2008 · Posted in Bush Administration, Congress, Domestic Policy, Election 2008 · Comments Off

Last Friday’s hot news of the day, spun for your listening and viewing pleasure, was the rather breathless report that Barack Obama had reversed his stance on offshore drilling, which was, of course, viewed as the proverbial flip-flop. I really wish that term would leave politics altogether. It gives the press and public alike permission to ignore nuance and complexity and boil things down to simplistic, jingoistic phrases that mean nothing, but get voters who look for these types of simple and mostly inaccurate phrases excited.

After reading more careful reports and expanded comments by Obama, I’m not seeing a flip-flop. What he said was what he’s been saying all along. If the choice is gridlock or progress, he’s willing to compromise to make progress. In his own words:

“My interest is in making sure we’ve got the kind of comprehensive energy policy that can bring down gas prices,” Obama, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, said in an interview with the Palm Beach Post. “If, in order to get that passed, we have to compromise in terms of a careful, well-thought-out drilling strategy that was carefully circumscribed to avoid significant environmental damage — I don’t want to be so rigid that we can’t get something done.”

He has evidently praised, but not endorsed, a proposal for limited offshore drilling of existing leases off the coast of Florida and the Gulf of Mexico. California coasts will be excluded. Obama rightly expresses skepticism that offshore drilling would solve any problems. He should hold onto that position, and not trade even limited access to coastlines for an alternative energy plan. I believe this is one battle that can be won on the facts, provided that he chooses to lead the way and Democrats, progressive and bluedog alike, make a decision to be creative, innovative, and communicate clearly.

I don’t support expansion of offshore drilling in any form. I am a Californian; hence, photos of California coastline, but consider these to be a protest of any drilling offshore, whether Florida, the Gulf Coast, Alaska or California. Unfortunately, the McCain camp and Republicans have figured out that the issue is big enough to push hard with the American public.

Here’s the spin, based on the cliche’ invented by Newt Gingrich. They call it “Drill Here, Drill Now.”, and they’ve figured out that there is enough traction around the idea that they can get away with it.

On Friday, Rep. John Culberson and his House colleagues staged a political grandstand play on Twitter and Qik, intending to leave the impression that the House Democrats would rather have gone on vacation than deal ways to ease the current gas prices.

When Nancy Pelosi adjourned Congress for the August break, Culberson and his colleagues staged a protest after the fact via social media, claiming that Pelosi was blocking an up or down vote on the “drill here, drill now” initiative. Purely political, the intent was to have a reason to shift the blame from the rightful shoulders of Bush, Cheney and the group that stonewalls all efforts to close the Enron loophole to the Democrats, ostensibly for blocking this vote.

Here’s something for the masses. Let’s call it “Use it or Lose it”. The oil companies are not exploring the leases they already have. I see no reason to reward them by adding billions of dollars of assets to their balance sheet by giving them rights to drill previously forbidden areas when they have not touched over 57 million acres of existing leases on public lands.

Simple enough, right? They can use those, or lose them. And while we’re at it, let’s also close that Enron loophole which will curb the rampant speculators driving prices up, and revise patent laws so that they cannot snap up the patents and stonewall alternative energy ideas, designs and sources to keep them from actually being implemented.

What Obama and the Democrats need to wrap their heads around is this: They are operating from a position of strength. They need to quit acting like whipped dogs and start really working toward shaping a policy with long-term and short-term implications. The windfall profits tax is definitely warranted. So too, the idea to shorten the expiration of unused patents, rather than allowing for ownership forever.

Offshore drilling is a Republican invention that they’re spoon-feeding the American public like the pablum we’ve gotten used to from the Bushes. Let’s change the political landscape, not the landscapes on our shores.

If you’re interested in more thoughts on offshore drilling, corporate profits, and use of social media as a tool for political grandstanding, listen to Friday’s NewsGang Live. I think it’s one of our best shows, and we spend the majority of it talking about these very issues.

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Tags: Enron loophole, grandstanding, John Culberson, NewsGang Live, Obama, offshore drilling, oil prices, posturing

McCain’s Coastal Flip-Flop = Global Disaster

June 23, 2008 · Posted in Bush Administration, Domestic Policy, Election 2008 · Comments Off

Senator Barbara Boxer and Representative Lois Capps held a conference call today to discuss the Bush/McCain response to $140/barrel oil. Before I share the high points of the call, I want to offer some pictorial perspective on why I and most other Californians, Republican and Democrat, are so vehemently against what is clearly an election-year gimmick with no short-term benefits and many long-term consequences. This isn’t political, or economic. It’s personal.

I took this picture in 2006 at Port Hueneme Beach, just before sunset. What you don’t see in this photo is as significant as what you do see. While I obviously chose the photo of the flip-flop to make a statement about McCain, what isn’t in the photo is polluted water, patches of oil in the sand, or washed up sea life that has died as the result of offshore drilling.

I live in Camarillo, California, one of the jewels of California’s central coast. Camarillo is not on the coast; we’re inland about 8 miles but it’s an easy bike ride to get there, and we’re close to some of the most beautiful coastline in California. Here, let me pull back and show you a bigger picture.

This is our California coastline in all its glory. Unmarred by oil derricks, graced by the presence of the now-repopulated brown pelicans (once endangered by DDT poisoning), red-tailed hawks and the seasonal migration of gray whales. Sometimes on an especially hot day, we’ll load everyone in the car, get dinner, and head down to Point Mugu to watch sea lions, dolphins, pelicans and assorted gulls enjoy the sunset and the plentiful fish just off the shoreline.

Bush and McCain want everyone to believe the answer to the high price of oil is opening up the moratorium on offshore drilling. I’m old enough to remember back to 1976 just like Senator Boxer is, and I remember the protracted battle that we fought and won back then. It’s pretty amazing to me that the Bush/McCain contingent is relying on voters not having enough of a memory to go back 30 years to oppose this, but let me give you some facts.

In the Bush years, applications for permits to drill on public lands have increased by 361%. In that same eight-year span, oil prices have risen by nearly 1200%. Obviously, there is no correlation between lower gas prices and granting rights for oil exploration and drilling.

Despite the issuance of permits for drilling and exploration, only 23% of the existing public lands and waters are being drilled. The oil companies have the leases but aren’t using the ones they already have.

If existing leases were drilled and were producing, US oil production would double and imports would be cut by over one third.

Bush and McCain’s position on offshore drilling is nothing more than a gimmick. It doesn’t represent any kind of immediate relief to consumers who are struggling to fill their tanks, pay for groceries and their bills. Does this sound like a campaign ad? Well, maybe it’s because I am one thousand percent in support of those who oppose this wrong-headed destructive proposal and think it’s the worst kind of campaign lie I’ve ever heard.

Representative Lois Capps represents the Santa Barbara area, where the economy depends heavily on tourism. Here’s a photo I took up in her district. Imagine this beautiful great white egret poking its beak into oil residue washed up on the shore by the offshore derricks. The Channel Islands lie just off the Santa Barbara coast, housing one of the few refuges for the Bald Eagle, our national symbol of freedom, strength, and independence.

When Senator Boxer and Representative Capps raise their voices and grow passionate about this, it’s not simply because they’re politicians with an agenda. They live in these areas, they know what drilling costs communities, people, and wildlife.

So why is this such a big deal to Bush and McCain? Well, first of all, it makes it sound like they’re doing something that would actually impact oil prices. It’s all sound and heat, with no light, but it makes for great soundbites if you take the assertion that the problem is all about supply and demand, instead of other issues that make them look like the shysters they are for trying to sell this to voters.

It’s a distraction, just like the ridiculous idea to suspend the gas tax. It’s a way to make people THINK they’re sensitive to their pain while doing nothing other than throwing a gold mine the way of the oil companies. Reality is another thing entirely. Reality is wholesale destruction of our environment without any appreciable gain until 2030, earliest. Reality is that even with increased drilling, refineries aren’t going to increase output unless we build more, which opens another environmental and national security Pandora’s box. Reality is that if we can’t get our elected representatives to let go of oil as the sole answer to energy needs, we are going to have a disaster of global proportions on our hands that will be irreversible. Reality lies the way of alternative sources for energy, not more drilling, especially when drilling has decreased since 2006, despite marked increases in the number of drilling permits issued.

If you’re reading this and you support the Bush/McCain proposals, I have some questions for you:

Why has John McCain consistently voted against alternative energy and conservation proposals like the Clean Car tax credit?
Why is he supporting an initiative that will not give us any price relief at all and won’t even show a difference for 22 or so years?
Why is Phil Gramm, author of the Enron Loophole, a key player on McCain’s team?
When does Senator McCain expect to introduce or co-sponsor legislation closing the Enron loophole, which would stop the ridiculous price inflation on oil prices and drop them to a much more reasonable level?
Does Senator McCain support Senator Obama’s 2007 legislation authorizing the FTC to investigate and pursue price manipulation in the oil markets?

If you still think it makes sense to drill in the Arctic Circle or off the magnificent shorelines of California, Florida, and other shoreline states, think again. It’s a gimmicky distraction from the true corruption taking place at the highest levels of our government, and the presumptive nominee of the Republican party.

This is not a partisan issue. Many, many Republicans oppose the Bush/McCain plan as much as I do. Here’s one last photo of our coastline to leave you with a true understanding of why we have a duty to prevent such abuse of our natural resources from happening.