As a rule, there’s very little point in arguing with far-right activists. We all know the saying about wrestling in the mud with pigs.
But I’ve been amazed this week by the bizarre nature of the policy discussion over oil drilling, and when I saw that Hugh Hewitt had tackled the subject in a lengthy column, I thought, at a minimum, I could learn what conservatives are thinking about this issue.
I, of course, underestimated what Hewitt is capable of.
Because demand for oil isn’t going to drop due to growth around the globe, the only way to bring the cost of a gallon of gas at the pump down is to increase the supply of oil. The only way to increase the supply of oil for the present is to explore for more oil and then bring it to market. That means drilling.
In the U.S. that means drilling on the outer continental shelf, more than 50 miles from the nearest coastline.
John McCain favors allowing states to do just that. Obama, Pelosi and Reid oppose it. To get the exploration underway a federal ban on such off shore drilling must be lifted, but House Democrats have blocked that move, most recently this very month. They and their presidential candidate would rather see your wallet bleed and American growth deteriorate than cross their political allies and contributors in the environmental movement.
Got that? Dems who oppose the Bush/McCain drilling policy actually don’t like you or care about the country. Obama may have a progressive, comprehensive energy policy, but since coastal and ANWR drilling is the only solution, and Obama is against it, nothing else matters. As Hewitt sees it, Dems literally “don’t care how high the price [of gas] goes” or “about the impact on the average American family.”
Wow, those Dems sure are a heartless bunch, aren’t they? Here I thought they were bleeding-hearts, overly concerned about using the government to improve Americans’ lives. Little did I know, until Hewitt explained it to me, that Dems just don’t care at all.
Now, it may seem obvious to some of us that drilling won’t have an effect on what consumers pay at the pump, at least not until 2017, and even then, the impact is likely to be negligible.
But not Hewitt, who has it figured out. In fact, he concluded, “We can drill our way out of this problem.”
First, the announcement by the U.S. of an immediate move to begin outer continental shelf drilling would send oil prices downward and probably significantly as the speculators’ premium vanished quickly. No one wants to get caught holding the contract for high priced oil when new reserves are discovered. Make no mistake, the refusal of Obama et al to push for outer continental shelf exploration is costing you a great deal at the pump this very day and every day the ban remains in effect.
As for the argument that the reserves are not that great, this ignores the entire history of oil exploration, where new discoveries and new fields often bring huge new reserves into view. That’s why it is called exploration. The huge reserves in the North Sea weren’t discovered until the 1960s. Huge new discoveries off the coast of Brazil were reported in 2007. Combined with new (and very environmentally safe) extraction technologies, the canard that reserves can’t possibly be enough to help is exposed as just another thin facade over the DDDs’ extremist agenda.
Hope isn’t a plan, but it is an energy policy.
My very favorite part: in a blog post promoting his column, Hewitt argues, “Democrats are banking on the voters’ collective ignorance of supply and demand.”
He did not appear to be kidding.