Democrats are waking up to the reality that they cannot continue their opposition to domestic oil development with $4 gasoline prices. (Via Instapundit.) We needn’t however, imagine that they suddenly understand economics:
Although Senate Democrats are slowly easing away from opposition to offshore drilling, it’s clear that the majority party is not giving it away for nothing.
One idea floated by Reid would require that whatever oil is drilled in newly opened areas would need to be sold in the United States.
Democrats also want any compromise plan to include investments in clean and renewable energies, a crackdown on oil speculators and proof that the oil and gas companies are fully utilizing land that is already leased for exploration.
“If they were showing in good faith that they were drilling on some of the 68 million acres they have now, it might change some of our attitudes,” said Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.).
Investment in renewable energy might be a reasonable idea. Cracking down on “speculators” is idiocy (for one, how do you distinguish between speculation and hedging?). The other two are simply funny.
You want to require that the oil be sold in the U.S.? You go right ahead; it won’t make any difference. Since oil is a fungible (i.e., interchangeable) commodity, if oil companies want they can sell those particular oil molecules in the U.S. and sell other oil molecules abroad. (True, there are different grades of crude oil, but we already use them all in America.) The only way this would make a difference is if we actually obtained more oil in the new drilling than America’s total usage, or if there were significant cost to ship oil from the Gulf of Mexico to the U.S.
You think that oil companies are declining to drill in promising areas for oil exploration that are already open? That makes no sense. What possible reason could they have? Spite? Concern over making too much money? Geez.
POSTSCRIPT: To give credit where credit is due, Jim Webb (D-VA) is pushing nuclear power. Good for him.
Internet Scofflaw 