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.

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?

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.

High gas prices are something this country and its people have needed for a long time. A good hard kick in the ass.