Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Drill, Baby...Huh?

President Obama declared his intention to open some of the coast to oil drilling. There is almost undoubtably oil down there, a question occurs as to how much. There certainly is not sufficient oil to significantly affect domestic prices - despite GOP lunacy there just isn't that much oil here, period. The argument can be made that some is much more than none and while that is true there is the question of relative risk. I can't answer that one, the oil industry is considerably cleaner than in decades past but ooopses are real nasty.

I guess the question that I have is to what end this change in policy is being made? If it has anything to do with getting GOP support - well, I'd sure prefer some handcuffing going on, support or forget this. If it is about voters, I just don't know. I'm having a problem figuring out the targets. I keep seeing downsides and not much of anything on the upside.

Ok, that's a lot words to say, "Huh?"

3 comments:

MichaelRyerson said...

For me personally, it isn't hyperbole in the slightest to say he's baffled me. Considering the alternative, I was an enthusiastic supporter in the general, took a wait-and-see in the primaries, would have been 'happy' with Hillary or Obama. With his inauguration, I had a modest list of hopes/expectations:close Guantanamo, restore habeus corpus, address the environment/global warming, health care reform (which, to my way of thinking, would have to include a 'robust' public option), bring the troops home. There was more, of course, but I limited myself to what I thought could and should be accomplished pretty much out of the box. Not really that happy with the first year.

realbtl said...

Not to get all 11th dimensional chess-y but I don't think Obama ever thought the Rs would go for this. By him bringing it up he has co-opted the issue so they can't use it. I don't think people will notice the "that's not enough" nuance from the Rs, they'll just hear off-shore drilling from O. Plus, if I remember the map correctly, almost all of the proposed areas are off red states. My sense that having offed this and been rejected, O can take it back and say "See, I tried". Seems win-win to me.

Chuck Butcher said...

realbtl,
I've seen the same thinking and it could be accurate but it would seem to assume sky high oil prices going into the fall. It also seems to assume that those who'd buy "Drill Baby Drill," would vote (D) minus that.