Democrats Cave On Offshore Drilling Moratorium

The Democrats caved on funding for the war, caved on FISA reform, and have now caved on offshore drilling. They are going to let the Congressional moratorium on offshore drilling lapse without any conditions, such as limiting drilling to areas beyond 50 miles.

Republicans have effectively won the debate in Washington, but Democrats may still gum up the works by kludging the distribution of revenues to the states. That's a potential deal breaker as states aren't likely to ratify a deal that doesn't include revenue sharing. The Democrats must have realized that the polls weren't working in their favor and had to call it a day since they didn't have a prayer of winning in November if they continued to obstruct energy independence.

So, will this mean that drilling can start soon? Not at all. Watch for the eco-leftists and Democrats, including the New Jersey delegation (Gov. Corzine, Sen. Menendez and Sen. Lautenberg) to continue their strident opposition to offshore drilling, even in areas where it is well known that there are significant natural gas deposits.

These two groups will do all they can to thwart offshore drilling, but with the continuing pressure on high oil prices, the Democrats are finding themselves on the defensive and cannot offer up conservation as the only ticket out of the mess they've created.

Conservation alone will not solve the nation's energy needs, and does nothing to bring down the prices of energy. Drilling for more fuel can and will. The possibility that drilling may happen soon is sufficient to bring optimism to the energy markets and puts downward pressure on oil prices. Let's also keep in mind that energy sources domestically have the benefit of being located locally - reducing transportation costs, creates jobs domestically, and has a further benefit of reducing reliance on regions of the world that are unstable, including the Middle East.

Hot Air has more. QandO thinks that this is just a smoke screen to attempt to take the issue off the table for the rest of the election season, so that when January comes around, the Democrats can hopefully reinstate the moratorium and make it impossible to drill domestically.

UPDATE:
Stop the ACLU also weighs in, and wonders when the news will start being reflected at the pumps. I think it's going to take some time, and there's other news that is likely to affect prices, including saber rattling from Iran and Venezuela and Russia.