Drilling: Will Congress ever act?

Inter Lake editorial

The president's decision to lift an executive ban on offshore oil drilling is largely symbolic, and may not be enough to spur Congress to follow suit.

But if Congress doesn't want to follow the president's lead, we hope they will use common sense and notice the recent polls showing that the American public supports increased drilling by a 3-1 margin.

For whatever reason, however, the Democratic Congress seems resistant to changing an energy policy that has led to $4 a gallon gasoline as well as higher prices for food and other products that are delivered to market by truck.

When the president made his announcement Monday, Democrats said that more drilling was not the solution to higher prices because new drilling would not have an impact until about 2030.

Of course, that's right, but it fails to acknowledge the reverse is also true: One of the reasons we are in the mess we have now is because the former President Bush signed the offshore drilling ban in 1990.

The point we have to learn is that short-term solutions often cause long-term stress.

In response to the current crisis, Democrats Tuesday called on the president to start releasing oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve - which would only ensure that the reserve would be empty when we really needed it, and would probably have a minimal impact on prices at the pump.

Democrats also want to curb speculation in the oil futures market, which is a reasonable solution as long as you think it is reasonable for government to control the free market.

Unfortunately, that seems to be more and more the solution Democrats are proposing in the oil crisis. Famously, Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., blurted out in a House Judiciary Committee meeting in May that, "This liberal will be about socializing… uh, um… would be about basically taking over, and the government running, all of your companies."

Waters later said that was not an "intentional statement," so presumably she just let slip her views by accident. She never did retract the views she espoused, however.

More recently, in June, Rep. Maurice Hinchey, D-N.Y., asked whether the people of the United States should own oil refineries. "Maybe so," he answered. "Frankly, I think that's a good idea. Then we could control the amount of refined product much more capably that gets out to market."

Of course, it would also greatly increase the centralized power of the government of the United States, and force taxpayers to absorb any losses incurred.

Drilling may not be the whole answer, but socialism is not any part of the answer - just a bigger, more dangerous problem. Congress needs to face facts, and deal with the existing oil market in a way that lets American companies and developers bring oil to market, for the good of us all.