I’ve been liking, not loving, the Rachel Maddow Show so far. It has a number of decent segments and good guests. Tonight though she went on a rant against the Democrats for taking steps to allow limited off-shore drilling, calling it caving in to Republican pressure. Now, on multiple occasions I’ve pointed out that being strictly opposed to capitalizing on our natural resources seems misguided. No, it will have no great effect on energy costs, energy independence, or preventing petro-dictators from getting money. It will however allow our economy to profit from the same high prices that the aforementioned dictators are banking on. We should have some drilling but with provisions in place so that most of the benefit of this exploration accrues to the general public and not the oil companies. Tied to this, it does seem to be the case that most of the available drilling space is being unused, so it may be there is no great demand for more space. This means it may not be a worry but we also need “use it or lose it” provisions to prevent companies from grabbing up resource rights that they can hold on to to utilize only when they can maximize profit rather than when we can maximize utility.
A few more relevant points:
1. With Bush acting to lift the moratorium, and given sunset clauses, a failure to pass any measure would result in full drilling authorization, and given the state of the Senate, they could stop measures that do not provide sufficient nuggets to pressure them into joining along. Thus it makes sense to allow for some drilling but put important provisions in such as allowing individual states to control drilling activities and pushing it further from the shore.
2. I feel the Democrats were wrong on policy, but they were certainly taking a beating on the politics of oil drilling. By being proactive with this effective compromise solution, they can put the pressure back on Republicans. As the majority in Congress, they can dictate a drilling-plus-renewables plan that has popular appeal and if the Republicans try to stop it, suddenly THEY are the ones getting in the way of drilling. If there has been one complaint of the Democratic Congress, it is that they are not willing enough to continue passing things that either Republicans in the Senate will filibuster or the President will veto. Knowing something will fail does not mean it is pointless because being able to show the public that your party is trying to do all the right things and making it clear the other party is responsible for the hold-up is a good thing.
3. Nothing stops them from revising this in the Spring assuming they are in an even better position politically to dictate terms.
