No comment on the Offshore Drilling subject?

[BanginJimmy]

I havent had a chance to read up on it at all. Based on the past though, my first guess is that this is nothing more than a token gesture as a way to hide something else. Sort of like when dems decided that the govt should have complete control over school loans belonged in a health care bill.

[Vteckidd]

Based on the past though, my first guess is that this is nothing more than a token gesture as a way to hide something else.

Definitely looks like it, its a concession to the republicans so he can get support to pass the Climate Change legislation. They cant use reconciliation to pass that :P


Full story, source POLITICO (first thing that popped up in google)

President Barack Obama launched an ambitious plan on Wednesday to lift a decades-long moratorium on offshore oil drilling along the East Coast from Delaware to Florida, in the Gulf of Mexico and Alaska.

“This is not a decision that I’ve made lightly,” he said in remarks at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland. “But the bottom line is this: given our energy needs, in order to sustain economic growth and produce jobs and keep our businesses competitive, we are going to need to harness traditional sources of fuel, even as we ramp up production of new sources of renewable, homegrown energy.”

Obama’s decision is closely tied politically to the fate of the climate change bill jointly sponsored by Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), John Kerry (D-Mass.), and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) And while it could win the president support from conservative Democrats and Republicans – Graham has said he would not support a bill that “doesn’t have offshore drilling in a meaningful way” – it is also likely to rile part of Obama’s Democratic base, particularly environmentalists.

In urging Congress to pass comprehensive energy and climate legislation, Obama attempted to bridge the political divide by tying offshore drilling to the nation’s security and stressing that it’s one piece of a larger energy plan.

“There will be those who strongly disagree with this decision, including those who say we should not open any new areas to drilling,” Obama acknowledged. “But what I want to emphasize is that this announcement is part of a broader strategy that will move us from an economy that runs on fossil fuels and foreign oil to one that relies more on homegrown fuels and clean energy. And the only way this transition will succeed is if it strengthens our economy in the short term and long term.”

“To fail to recognize this reality,” he concluded, “would be a mistake.”

Obama is proposing the first new offshore oil and gas sales in the Atlantic in two decades. The decision modifies a 20-year-old ban that limited new drilling, confining most to the seas off the Gulf of Mexico. The government will continue lease sales in the Central and Western Gulf of Mexico.

The president urged those on both sides of the energy debate to cede some ground. Addressing Republicans who believe his offshore drilling initiative doesn’t go far enough, Obama suggested they embrace his clean energy initiatives by pointing out that the United States has 2 percent of the world’s oil reserves, yet is responsible for 20 percent of global consumption.

Obama said his energy plan will boost the economy by putting the United States in position to compete in global energy marketplace “so that we are no longer tethered to the whims of what happens somewhere in the Middle East.”

Its a nice gesture, but what does it REALLY mean and will we see any benefit of it? I havent researched it enough. But IMO who cares if the Cap N Trade thing goes through this is the least of our concerns

[preferredduck]

I havent had a chance to read up on it at all. Based on the past though, my first guess is that this is nothing more than a token gesture as a way to hide something else. Sort of like when dems decided that the govt should have complete control over school loans belonged in a health care bill.

agreed, there has to be something hidden in this. it's amazing what they can hide in 3000 pages that nobody gets time to read and the people don't get the facts until CNN or FOX news covers it and put their spin on it.