This is the offshore-drilling map: what Congress has allowed and what it has disallowed. The green areas are legal, the red aren’t, and the yellow aren’t under our jurisdiction. (For the rather lurid “No Zone” thing, blame Idaho Sen. Larry Craig—this was produced by his office.)
This is the map of the mockery that China, Cuba, Canada, and other countries are making of that ban, drilling into the Gulf oil fields from sites as close to 50 miles off the coast of Key West.
At the very least, as we debate expanding offshore drilling, we need to be aware that just because we’ve banned it doesn’t mean it isn’t happening—it just means it’s happening a little further off shore, to the benefit of other countries (some of them our enemies) instead of our own.
I have already posted a rather lengthy note on this, so forgive me for being succinct in my response.
If the oil companies agree to drill without subsidies or tax breaks, abide by environmental standards, and make that oil available to the American market (vs. world market) then sure, I say let ’em rip.
The agreements that I have seen, and this has been reported on many “liberal” sites, state that oil companies are not willing to agree to those stipulations? Since they seem reasonable to me, I end up scratching my head….
I think we’re in agreement on that. (It’s one of the reasons I like Sarah Palin: she’s a big one on both resource development and resource protection, both boosting drilling and really holding the oil companies’ feet to the fire.)