It's Big Oil- no. 4

The New York Times reported on 6/18/08 two responses by prominent Democrats to the insistence of Repubs to encourage the oil companies to drill on domestic lands and offshore. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid argued:

So all that Cheney can talk about, the Oil Man Cheney can talk about, is drilling, drilling drilling. But there is not enough oil in America to make that the salvation to our problems.

And after the President urged an end to the moratorium on offshore drilling, Reid responded

The Energy Information Administration says that even if we open the coasts to oil drilling that won’t have a significant impact on prices.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, taking a different tack, argued:

The president’s proposal sounds like another page from the administration’s energy policy that was literally written by the oil industry: give away more public resources to the very same oil companies that are sitting on 68 million acres of federal lands they’ve already leased.

Both on policy and politics, I think, Pelosi's approach is sounder for the Democratic Party. There is enough oil and gas accessible to energy companies to drive up the supply and drive down the price- if it doesn't happen, it's because those companies have decided that plunging American families into bankruptcy is a small price to pay to get the price of a gallon of unleaded to $5.00. Take the populist approach now, Senator Obama- it will save time when in October you need to address the concerns of voters in the likes of Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania.