Yes, we CAN drill our way out of this

You must have seen or heard it. It’s been repeated ad nauseum by Democrats on floors of both houses of Congress, before TV cameras and radio microphones and at recent campaign events. “We can’t drill our way out of this.” The donkey party’s latest mantra has been hammered home by the usual suspects from Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid to Barack Obama. Like most Democrat talking points, it’s a falsehood.

Yes we CAN drill our way out of this. Just the announcement of our intention to drill in any one of the Big Three Forbidden Zones (off the Continental Shelf, in the Baaken or in ANWR) would have a considerable impact on the speculators who have been driving the price of oil ever skyward for the past several months. Hugh Hewitt makes the point:

No one wants to get caught holding the contract for high priced oil when new reserves are discovered.

In fact, the speculation which has driven up the price of oil is only made possible because we have tied our hands to prevent ourselves from exploiting our own considerable domestic supplies:

In the current oil market unreasonable speculation is simply a symptom of the problem. That problem being the lack of a stable supply of crude oil.
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Current oil production levels are virtually identical to demand with very little excess capacity available in the event of an interruption. Political instability, weather hazards, refinery breakdowns, terror attacks, kidnapping/attacks on oil platforms and hostage taking, and other interruptions in production increase the risk that oil supply will not be able to meet the demand in the future.
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That is where the market comes in. If you are a large consumer of oil you purchase futures contracts, offering to buy oil in the future, at a set price that the seller has to deliver at that price — no matter what interruptions occur between now and then. In order to make a profit traders have to build in a premium in the cost of oil to offset that ever increasing risk.
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Increasing domestic production — Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less — would greatly reduce much of the speculation by mitigating many of the uncertainties. From the list above, if you developed domestic supply in various regions of the US (Both coasts, Rocky Mountains, Alaska, Plains) you would mitigate the major effects of weather, political instability, terror attacks, attacks on platforms, and many other interruptions because there would be additional supplies from the remaining stable US regions. Increasing refining capacity would help mitigate the effects of refinery breakdowns.
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This fundamental misunderstanding of the oil markets and the refusal of the Democrats to allow increased energy production has empowered the speculators in ways not seen since the markets began trading, resulting in a direct increase in the price of gasoline. The Democrat’s tactic of deflecting blame to the oil companies only serves to increase the speculation as additional restrictions and increased taxes on domestic oil producers historically leads to reduced domestic production.

But no one that I know of is claiming that all we should do is drill for oil to try to make ourselves more energy independent. Most advocates for increased domestic drilling see it as just one tactic in a compresehsive strategic energy policy which also encourages building more nuclear reactors, synthesizing liquid fuels from coal and waste celluloic stock, continuing the refinement of hybrid electric vehicles and developing hydrogen as a motor fuel, just for starters. We think that it’s really cool that used cooking oil can be easily made into something that diesel engines can burn. We see clean burning natural gas and propane as the logical alternative fuels for buses and fleet vehicles.

Nor are we only talking about the supply side here. Many of us have little or no problem with increasing the fuel efficiency of our vehicles, our homes and our workplaces. As conservatives, we have long argued that higher prices will help to drive down demand, and we are seeing that happen in the real world right here and right now.

The truth is that Democrats are so beholden to the environmental special interests that they’ve painted themselves into a corner on energy matters. The donkeys are trying to swim against an increasing tide:

Most voters favor the resumption of offshore drilling in the United States and expect it to lower prices at the pump, even as John McCain has announced his support for states that want to explore for oil and gas off their coasts.
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A new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey—conducted before McCain announced his intentions on the issue–finds that 67% of voters believe that drilling should be allowed off the coasts of California, Florida and other states. Only 18% disagree and 15% are undecided. Conservative and moderate voters strongly support this approach, while liberals are more evenly divided (46% of liberals favor drilling, 37% oppose).
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Sixty-four percent (64%) of voters believe it is at least somewhat likely that gas prices will go down if offshore oil drilling is allowed, although 27% don’t believe it. Seventy-eight percent (78%) of conservatives say offshore drilling is at least somewhat likely to drive prices down. That view is shared by 57% of moderates and 50% of liberal voters.
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Nearly all voters are worried about rising gas and energy prices, with 79% very concerned and 16% somewhat concerned.

Yes, it’s still “the economy, stupid” and especially pump prices for gasoline and diesel, not to mention the high costs the airlines are incurring for jet fuel. The GOP seems to be waking up to what conservatives already knew. Make energy your number one issue and offer doable solutions to the problems of energy security and high prices.

The Democrats, meanwhile, have sentenced themselves to doing hard time in Al Gore’s lockbox, and they’ve entrusted the key to the Sierra Club. Couldn’t happen to a more deserving bunch of people, one which has consistently put its own selfish political interests ahead of America’s security and her citizens’ bank accounts.

- JP