Only Moment Alone

What are the “Drill Here! Drill Now!” militants focusing on now to push their false promise of offshore oil drilling as a rescue to these gas prices?

Well, it’s probably not the Energy Information Administration’s study that concluded that access to the Pacific, Atlantic, and Eastern Gulf regions for Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) drilling would not have a significant impact on crude oil and natural gas production or prices before 2030.

They’re probably not focusing on the 33 million acres of off-shore federal lands that are currently being leased by oil companies that are not currently producing oil or gas, or the fact that in the last 8 years, the number of drilling permits issued for development of public lands has increased by more than 361 percent.

No, now they are focusing on convincing lying to the American public that there are no environmental concerns to increased domestic drilling in the OCS.

Brad at Think Progress points out:

To support the Big Oil agenda of increased offshore drilling, conservatives have been telling the American public that there weren’t any major spills caused by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita for an entire month. The following video shows Sen. McCain (R-AZ), Wall Street Journal writer Stephen Moore, Gov. Bobby Jindal (R-LA), Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne, McCain spokeswoman Nancy Pfotenhauer, former Sen. Trent Lott (R-MS), and Sen. McCain (again).

Watch it:

IN ACTUALITY, 113 oil platforms were destroyed, 52 platforms were damaged, over 500 pipelines were damaged, and 741,000 gallons were released in offshore spills. (The Department of Interior’s Minerals Management Service details the damages here.)

There is even clear satellite evidence from SkyTruth of major spills and oil slicks immediately following Katrina.

In addition, taking all on-shore and off-shore spills into account, the two storms caused 595 total documented spills and released an estimated 9 million gallons of oil according to a Houston Chronicle review of data from the National Response Center, in addition to details released by the U.S. Coast Guard.

As Think Progress also points out, all of the people spouting these lies are either lobbyists for energy companies or funded heavily by Big Oil. They know who domestic drilling will benefit and HINT: It’s not you.

Also, they may pretend to care about the environment, but it’s all a big joke, and the joke is on us. It cannot be illustrated more clearly than this:

According to the UK’s Telegraph, as George Bush prepared to leave Japan on the last day of the recent G8 summit, he exited by saying:

“Goodbye from the world’s biggest polluter.”

He then punched the air while grinning widely, as the rest of those present including Gordon Brown and Nicolas Sarkozy looked on in shock.

Un-freaking-believable.

Don’t be fooled into thinking that these politicians have the best for the environment or the consumer in mind by pushing for this land-grab for the oil companies to expand domestic drilling. They are in the pockets of Big Oil, and in the end this push for domestic drilling will do ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to impact prices at the pump and it has OBVIOUS environmental risks inherently attached.