UPDATE:
"WASHINGTON — A top adviser to President Barack Obama says no new oil drilling will be authorized until authorities learn what caused the explosion of the rig Deepwater Horizon."
.....
http://www.google.com/...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
“…on Wednesday, he (Senator Harry Reid) told reporters that the climate change bill would probably come before immigration because that legislation had already been drafted.”
http://www.nytimes.com/...
Earlier, as some might recall, Senator Reid had indicated that immigration bill might precede the Climate Change (CC) bill, prompting Senator Lindsey Graham to withhold his support for the CC bill.
It seems likely that the CC bill will be introduced soon after they wrap up the Financial Reform bill.
Now, to the topic of the offshore oil spill, President Obama’s recent decision to open up more offshore drilling, and the politics of the CC bill.
Rising oil and gas prices is the reason, I think, that the President announced opening up offshore drilling.
No, it won’t bring the price down, but it will get a few more votes for the coming Climate Change bill.
Look at the gas prices: http://www.eia.doe.gov/...
There is a chart at the bottom of the page. We are about 70 Cents higher than this time last year and only about 30 cents lower than March 2008. Gas prices peaked in July, 2008.
In summer months, when gas prices rise, they would be debating Climate Change legislation in the Senate. Gas price increase would inevitably get the “drill, baby, drill” folks making that the central issue, in their attempt to derail the entire energy legislation.
This was a preemptive move by the President to counter that.
If you look at the economics of it, offshore drilling makes no sense, as concluded in this report:
http://www.eia.doe.gov/...
With California saying "no" to offshore drilling, we are talking about less than 3 percent increase in U.S production (about 1 % of U.S. consumption) by 2030, and virtually no impact on oil price!
All that was before this major offshore spill:
http://www.nytimes.com/...
Granted, this was most likely an accident, and accidents cannot always be prevented. However, opening up more areas for offshore drilling in a region that gets frequent and strong hurricanes is asking for trouble. The White House report on the effects of Katrina validates this assessment:
“Much more than any other hurricane, Katrina’s wrath went far beyond wind and water damage. In fact, Hurricane Katrina caused at least ten oil spills, releasing the same quantity of oil as some of the worst oil spills in U.S. history. Louisiana reported at least six major spills of over 100,000 gallons and four medium spills of over 10,000 gallons.40 All told, more than 7.4 million gallons poured into the Gulf Coast region’s waterways, over two thirds of the amount that spilled out during America’s worst oil disaster, the rupturing of the Exxon Valdez tanker off the Alaskan coast in 1989.41”
Also see: http://www.guardian.co.uk/...
This particular platform spilling oil was relatively modern, and claimed as "safe", with little chance of oil spills. Clearly, the claims by platform owners need serious evaluation.
The President made a premature and wrong decision on offshore drilling. As a minimum, he should order a review of that decision, if not reverse it. On the Senate side, it is possible that, following this spill, there would be enough public pressure on Senators to oppose additional offshore drilling while supporting the Climate Change bill.