McCain and Offshore Drilling
McCain Still Claims that More Drilling will Affect Gas Prices
Aug 1, 2008
First, he encouraged Barack Obama to see the world and to get a feel for things on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan. When Obama listened, McCain chided him for making a celebrity trek through the Middle East and Europe.
McCain’s official response, of course, was the now-famous Paris Hilton and Britney Spears ad, which claims that Obama is the biggest celebrity in the world. The McCain camp announced that Obama’s speech in Berlin in front of 200,000 people was nothing but show, never mentioning the fact that Presidents Kennedy and Reagan each made one of their most famous speeches in front of big crowds in that same city.
And now, in a campaign where gas prices are a hot topic, McCain continues to try to convince voters that offshore drilling is the answer to lower gas prices. Until a June 2008 speech in Houston in front of oil company executives, McCain had supported a moratorium on offshore drilling. Now that he supports it, his campaign contributions from oil and gas companies have skyrocketed past the one-million-dollar mark. It’s amazing what money can do.
In reality, McCain’s notion that such drilling will affect prices at the pump is a pipe dream. The Energy Information Administration—the statistical section of the Department of Energy—has said that oil from offshore drilling would not reach the market for ten years, and even then “would not have significant impact” on oil prices.
So why is McCain putting out this nonsense? In the true American spirit, the answer lies in votes and money. Many voters are convinced that there is a political solution to the problem of high gas prices. So, telling them that drilling for more oil—thereby increasing the oil supply—is the answer, sounds really good even though it isn’t true.
If campaigns are all about votes, then they are all about money, too. McCain knows that he cannot compete with Obama’s fundraising if he does not have the support of big oil. Big oil and gas helped elect Bush, and McCain wants it to work for him as well. How else to explain McCain’s position that he wants to cut corporate taxes by ten percent, which would give Exxon Mobil $1.2 billion dollars, a corporation that currently earns $1,500 a second?
There is no doubt that McCain is pandering for votes, especially from those who have the most money and enjoy seeing oil prices rise. That is nothing new; this is American politics. Spreading the falsehoods about offshore drilling, however, is evidence that McCain has sunk to a new low, and that he is quite desperate for votes.
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