Gallup: 57% Support Opening Up Drilling
By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Democrats, Energy, Environment, Gas, Independents, Oil, Polls, RepublicansA completely understandable position given the current price of gas, but I wonder if those being polled understand the reasons why we put limits on oil companies access in the first place.
And while this is a partisan issue, there’s definitely a lot more Democratic support than Republican opposition.
My gut tells me that the government will open up access because of people’s pain points, but do know that it’ll be years before these new refineries will start pumping and there are absolutely no guarantees they’ll bear the type of fruit we want them to. Oil drilling is an incredibly speculative business and we can’t keep counting on it to provide us with the energy we need.
So, if we’re going to open up, it needs to be wrapped in with provisions that force auto manufacturers to make vastly more fuel efficient cars. These two things need to happen in concert because otherwise we’ll just keep consuming and getting into an even deeper hole.
This entry was posted on Thursday, June 19th, 2008 and is filed under Democrats, Energy, Environment, Gas, Independents, Oil, Polls, Republicans. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
June 19th, 2008 at 4:11 pm
The issue is becoming oil independent, not trying to lower gas prices so that, like crack junkies, we can get one last cheap fix, before an even faster and more painful withdrawal.
High gas prices are something this country and its people have needed for a long time. A good hard kick in the ass.
June 19th, 2008 at 5:01 pm
I’ve been very disappointed in the media coverage of this issue. When even Bush’s own DoE says that expanded drilling will have no effect on gas prices until 2030, and no effect on energy independence, ever, its a pretty clear example of political pandering. It’s the Gas Tax Holiday all over again.
June 19th, 2008 at 9:46 pm
Check this out on Angry Bear.
As I’ve said in one other place, give them what they want. Immunize them from lawsuits. But there’s one big gotcha. If they screw it up and it’s proven that it’s through negligence by Senate hearings they get a financial death penalty equal to something like half of their net profits for a year and no executives that get sacked because of it get a golden parachute. That should get some high muckety mucks fired and make them think twice.
June 20th, 2008 at 8:11 am
My favorite part about this whole debate is how the Democrats try to spin their steadfast position on blocking offshore drilling by claiming it would be just another handout to the evil big oil companies.
First of all, its not a handout if those projects are financed by private investment. There is money buried under the ground which no one as of yet has access to, and these companies will dig it out and keep some of it for themselves.
Second, when is this type of complaint directed towards any other type of industry? We always hear every politician say that he wants to set policy which will create jobs. Well dammit, here is an opportunity to create the highest paying American jobs for Americans! Thousands of new jobs will be created from scratch, payed for not from taxes, but from that money buried under the ground.
Big oil has a much lower profit margin than computers, biotech, or food industries. Would anyone complain about “Big software” expanding their industry and hiring thousands of American software engineers and technicians? Ever notice how its the people of Alaska, including inuit populations, who want to open up ANWR more than anyone else?
June 20th, 2008 at 9:03 am
First, I actually don’t have an issue with off-shore drilling; it can be done safely when the drillers are careful–and if we make the penalties so severe as to make a oil spill painful, I think they will be careful.
Drilling is not the issue; as usual, it’s the GOP politics of fear in play.
Obama opposes this measure as unnecessary because drilling will achieve nothing.
Big oil is already in possession of 68 million UNUSED acres of oil leases and roughly 80 percent of off shore oil is ALREADY accessible to them if they wish.
WAKE UP. They don’t want to drill more oil because they are already making billions a year. Exxon alone made $40 billion IN PROFIT last year. Drilling for more oil would actually cut into their profit in the short term as they would have to substantially grow the company to engage in added drilling. Unless they can sustain these high prices, growing large enough may even hurt them in the long run if oil prices fall.
It’s like the useless argument that keeps getting trotted out to build more refineries…show me ONE SINGLE REFINERY PROPOSAL IN THE LAST 20 years that has been shot down…you cannot. Big Oil has been CLOSING refineries for years, consolidating them into more efficient, more profitable refineries. They are not operating at capacity now.
This is being created as a wedge issue–McCain and the GOP hope people are stupid enough to fall for this “we need to drill for more oil” because Obama opposes it as unneeded
There is no oil supply shortage…(that does not mean oil supply is in abundance, just that supply is only a small part of the equation)….the price increases are a result of bad policy, the falling dollar and investors following the money.
This is, to put it mildly, nothing more than a political ploy to appeal to people who are hurting and drive them toward the McCain camp that supports this issue. It’s a fake, a fraud, and nonsense.
June 20th, 2008 at 9:31 am
Yep, gerryf, you’ve seen through it. The information on leases and offshore areas already available for drilling is what the Angry Bear link I provided earlier was about.
July 18th, 2008 at 2:47 pm
After reading everyones responses I have given some thought to this issue. For those that say Drilling is not going to help us is ludicrous. We need to become energy independent in every way we can oil,hydro,nuclear, wind Etc. For those of you that say putting more oil on the market wont bring the price down are idiots and to those of you that say drilling our own oil wont make us oil independent or bring the price down are idiots. Look at all the oil producing nations and check out what they are paying at the pump enough said!! I dont understand how people dont understand this issue. We cant keep relying on nations that dont even like us to deliver oil to us and expect a fair price. We are at thier mercy and that is no place to be. Obviously congress has not learned from the past mistakes made, maybe thats why they have a 9% approval rating which is about 20% lower than Bush’s. I think we need to clean house in congress in the next election and get people in there that really care about the american public and not there next pay raise. (if thats even possible)