You Don't Get To Complain

The Record of New Jersey once again throws itself in with the Democrats pain at the pump strategy. They want people to think that President Bush's lifting of the executive ban on offshore drilling was a cynical attempt to lay blame on Democrats.

Well, the facts are the facts. Democrats have blocked offshore drilling time and time again. Indeed, Gov. Corzine, Sen. Lautenberg, and Sen. Menendez all want to continue to ban on offshore drilling. Other members of the NJ delegation are engaging in little more than the typical NIMBY posturing - they want to see more production, just not in their backyard.

All ignore the very real costs to the people of the US for failing to provide new sources of oil, especially those that would help wean the US from foreign dependency on oil and improve US strategic economic interests.

The Record runs a Margulies cartoon which cynically suggests that the Jersey Shore view would be one of a series of oil rigs. Tell that to California, Texas, and Louisiana, where there are offshore rigs, but they haven't put a damper on tourism to their beaches.

The editorial goes on to say that the lifting of the ban and subsequent drilling wouldn't take much off the price of oil. Well, the facts again suggest that the Record gets it wrong. In the two days following the President's decision, the price of oil has slipped by nearly $10. Clearly, the oil traders think that the President's decision has an effect.

Conservation would never be able to keep up with rising demand, so that the need to find additional sources will continue to be present. Democrats, however, have a vested interest in seeing the price of oil climb through the roof - the need to press for more governmental power and control. Note that it is Democrats (see Obama, et seq.) who push for windfall profits taxes on oil companies - the very companies that would be drilling for oil and whose profits are actually less per dollar of revenue than those of Microsoft or the taxes taken out by the federal and state governments.

Note that it is Democrats who stand in the way of building new refineries or alternative energy sources like wind power (see Ted Kennedy's opposition to Cape Wind).

Note that it is Democrats who stand in the way of building the national repository for nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain (see Sen. Harry Reid).

Conservation sounds great, but it doesn't create a single new watt of power or a new barrel of oil.

Meanwhile, the fact is that depending on where the oil is actually discovered offshore, the possibility that you could actually see the oil rigs from the shore may not even be possible. With offshore oil drilling possible out to more than 100 miles, rigs might be completely over the horizon. It wouldn't mar the views, and indeed, the drivers who take their families down to the shore probably wouldn't mind those rigs if they were visible because they might be better able to afford the trip and help out the local economy by spending more locally rather than devote a greater percentage of their hard-earned money on gas for the trip.

UPDATE:
Investors Business Daily lays out what the Democrats have done - nothing but obstruct the possibility of crafting an energy policy that actually creates new energy.