Dianne Feinstein: The distraction of offshore drilling

The distraction of offshore drilling
Bush is pushing a false promise. What we need is a long-term energy strategy.
By Dianne Feinstein
July 18, 2008


There is no quick fix to $4.50-a-gallon gas, no way to provide instant relief to consumers we know are hurting. Yet President Bush and others continue to push the false promise of offshore oil drilling.

Just this week, the president lifted the executive order banning drilling that George H.W. Bush put in place in 1990. And he's asked Congress to lift its own moratorium on oil exploration on the outer continental shelf -- which includes coastal waters as close as three miles from shore.

This would be a terrible mistake. It would put our nation's precious coastlines in jeopardy and wouldn't begin to fix the underlying energy-supply problem. And it surely wouldn't ease gas prices any time in the near future.

The vast majority of the outer continental shelf is already open to oil exploration: Areas containing an estimated 82% of all of the natural gas and 79% of the oil are today available to energy companies through existing federal leases. Federal agencies are issuing drilling permits at three times the rate they were in 1999 -- but that hasn't slowed oil prices during the climb from $19 to beyond $140 a barrel.

Meantime, energy companies haven't fully utilized their existing permits to drill on another 68 million acres of federal lands and waters. Exploiting these areas probably could double U.S. oil production and increase natural gas production by 75%.

more...

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-feinstein18-2008jul18,0,4750904.story

will all be saved if we could open up ANWAR. She's not so sure about off-shore drilling in Cali as even Ahnold is against that. So confusing for a Repub. It's a shame Diane doesn't sound like a democrat more often!!

that's all it is.