All gimmicks, all the time – the offshore drilling fraud

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Earlier this year, John McCain proposed his "federal gas tax holiday" gimmick for the summer.  I guess he was too busy fund raising from lobbyists to actually show up to work in the Senate to push for enactment of his own proposal.  That’s leadership.

Now John McCain and his Republican allies in Congress have latched onto yet another gimmick (this is what they do best), demanding that Congress return from its August recess and vote on a bill to open all offshore coastal areas for oil drilling – as their oil company masters have instructed these loyal servants to do.

Before Congress left on recess, obstructionist Republicans in Congress, with a handful of oil state Democrats, managed to defeat a series of bills intended as amendments to a comprehensive energy package that would have actually reduced the price of oil and gasoline and slightly increased domestic supplies. 

They defeated the DRILL Act (use it or lose it") requiring oil companies to use the 68 million acres of federal oil and gas leases they currently possess but are not currently exploring or producing oil and gas on. House turns down ‘use it or lose it’ drilling bill — dailypress.com They defeated a pair of bills to rein in rampant speculation by index funds and  hedge funds in the oil futures markets. Gas could fall to $2 if Congress acts, analysts say – MarketWatch ("Record oil prices are inflated by speculation and not justified by market fundamentals," according to Gheit. "Based on supply and demand fundamentals, crude-oil prices should not be above $60 per barrel.")  And they defeated a bill to release reserves from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve as a temporary emergency measure to prevent further erosion of the U.S. economy caused by skyrocketing fuel prices. Oil Prices Gain After Defeat Of U.S. Reserve Bill Oh, and they also failed to extend renewable energy and energy-efficiency tax credits. Bill renewing clean energy credits fails vote | Markets | Reuters

Republicans are the loyal servants of the oil companies.  They aren’t interested in a comprehensive energy package that would end America’s addiction to oil.  They are the pushers working for the oil cartels who want to keep Americans addicted to oil and coming back for another fix.  The offshore drilling gimmick is just a grand distraction. It is really about a federal land grab by the oil companies, as I have previously discussed.

Here is a reality check on the gimmick of offshore drilling.  Reality Check On Offshore Drilling, Most Americans Support Lifting The Ban, But Experts Say Gas Prices Wouldn’t Change – CBS.

According to the federal government’s own Department of Energy, drilling off America’s coasts would not have a significant impact on domestic oil production or prices before 2030. And off-shore leasing wouldn’t even begin before 2012.

Why? Because the leasing process is cumbersome. And currently, there aren’t enough rigs or workers or refineries to handle more oil.

Then there’s this. Most of the U.S. offshore oil, almost 10 billion barrels, lie off the coast of California. But at the current rate of U.S. consumption – about 20.7 million barrels a day – that would be burned up in 16 months.

"It would have a pretty modest effect even when it did start flowing," said U.C. Berkeley energy researcher Severin Borenstein.

Borenstein says it might drop pump prices as much as 25 cents a gallon in 10 years or more, but: "I think it is very unlikely that we will ever see oil prices that get us back to $2 a gallon or even $3 a gallon."

And from the good folks at Media Matters Media Matters – Hannity falsely suggested no oil in areas already available to oil companies for drilling:

"The Boston Globe noted in a June 20 article, "About 86 billion barrels of additional oil may lie offshore, according to the US government’s Energy Information Administration," and then continued: "Of that amount, about 18 billion barrels are subject to the moratorium." Indeed, DOE’s Energy Information Administration’s 2007 Annual Energy Outlook stated that there were 18.17 billion barrels of "technically recoverable resources currently off limits in the lower 48 OCS." A similar report by the Federal Minerals Management Service (MMS) stated that "[t]he MMS estimates that the resources in OCS areas currently off limits to leasing and development total 18.9" billion barrels of undiscovered technically recoverable oil resources. That same report estimated that there were a total of 85.88 billion barrels of undiscovered technically recoverable oil resources on the OCS, irrespective of the moratorium. In addition, in its Inventory of Onshore Federal Oil and Natural Gas Resources and Restrictions to Their Development, the Bureau of Land Management estimated that only 38 percent of oil accessible under federal land is covered by existing prohibitions."

Like all other scientific studies produced by the U.S. government, these Republicans reject scientific research in favor of their "faith-based" ideological dogma.  "I know what I believe, don’t bother me with the facts."  Republicans are all about Madison Avenue marketing: they are selling you a product that you really don’t need, but their advertising is designed to convince you that you need to have it.  Don’t be a fool.

This bit of political theater is particularly galling coming from John McCain, who has not been to work in the Senate since last April.  As noted at the Huffington Post  McCain: I’ll Come Back To Senate For Oil:

Indeed, by this point in time, the nation’s capital is likely foreign land for the presumptive Republican nominee. In all, McCain has missed 63.3% of votes in the 100th Congress: 399 votes all together.

Here are a few of the most notable issues that, unlike off shore drilling, couldn’t persuade the Senator into legislative action:

–Medicare Reimbursement Cuts, 7/9/08

–The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, 7/9/08

–The New GI Bill, 6/28/08

-A $44 Billion Stimulus Package (McCain was in D.C. at the time) 2/7/08

–Equal Pay Legislation, 2/23/08

–All 15 Key Environmental Votes, according to the League of Conservation Voters

The folks at MoveOn.org have put together this new ad to drive home the point: