Drill Baby Drill
Now that the price of gasoline has dropped below two dollars a gallon and the country is focusing on the overall disaster we know as the US economy, what happened to all of the frenzied calls for expanded oil drilling that characterized the presidential election?
It wasn't terribly long ago that both Democrats and Republicans, both Mr. Obama and Mr. McCain, were insisting that new oil wells would play a vital role in the energy scheme of a new administration. Dire predictions of dwindling supply, accelerating demand and runaway prices at the pump drove the political discourse. In poll after poll, Americans voiced their support of drilling off the coasts of California, Florida and other previously prohibited locations, convinced there was no alternative. The Alaskan Wildlife Refuge, long considered sacrosanct by those who cherish the environment, was clearly in jeopardy. All the while, oil companies reported record earnings as the Bush administration repeatedly blocked moves to tax windfall profits in the name of energy security.
With the price of oil now hovering around $45 a barrel and the economy in free-fall, there is scant attention being paid to the "energy emergency." Just 3 months ago, OPEC agreed to cut production of oil by 1.5 million barrels a day to shore up plummeting prices. The strategy had little impact. Americans have shown that they are simply unable to accommodate high gas prices as they continue to lose their jobs and their homes and their pensions. Could it be that the foreign and domestic managers who control the oil spigot - many of whom have extensive investments that continue to undergird the teetering U.S. economy - have recognized that total collapse of the lucrative American market is not in their interest?
Now that the price of gasoline has dropped below two dollars a gallon and the country is focusing on the overall disaster we know as the US economy, what happened to all of the frenzied calls for expanded oil drilling that characterized the presidential election?
It wasn't terribly long ago that both Democrats and Republicans, both Mr. Obama and Mr. McCain, were insisting that new oil wells would play a vital role in the energy scheme of a new administration. Dire predictions of dwindling supply, accelerating demand and runaway prices at the pump drove the political discourse. In poll after poll, Americans voiced their support of drilling off the coasts of California, Florida and other previously prohibited locations, convinced there was no alternative. The Alaskan Wildlife Refuge, long considered sacrosanct by those who cherish the environment, was clearly in jeopardy. All the while, oil companies reported record earnings as the Bush administration repeatedly blocked moves to tax windfall profits in the name of energy security.
With the price of oil now hovering around $45 a barrel and the economy in free-fall, there is scant attention being paid to the "energy emergency." Just 3 months ago, OPEC agreed to cut production of oil by 1.5 million barrels a day to shore up plummeting prices. The strategy had little impact. Americans have shown that they are simply unable to accommodate high gas prices as they continue to lose their jobs and their homes and their pensions. Could it be that the foreign and domestic managers who control the oil spigot - many of whom have extensive investments that continue to undergird the teetering U.S. economy - have recognized that total collapse of the lucrative American market is not in their interest?
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