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Offshore Drilling for Oil in California or Elsewhere is Not the Answer

By Robert Cruickshank

When you drive along Highway 101 near Santa Barbara, or Highway 1 in Huntington Beach, it's hard to miss the many oil rigs on the ocean's horizon. They are relics of a bygone age - not just the 1960s, when they were constructed, but an age in which California believed that cheap oil would always be plentiful and available. We built an entire infrastructure around that and neglected trains, walkable neighborhoods, and lagged behind the rest of the world in developing solar and wind power.

Now the consequences of that misguided belief in the permanence of cheap oil have become clear. Gas prices are nearing $5, causing economic distress and sending Californians flocking to mass transit. For his part Barack Obama is proposing massive new investments in sustainable energy and rail infrastructure.

But what is instead dominating today's news cycle is the Bush-McCain call for offshore oil drilling. The LA Times had an article yesterday trying to convince us that offshore oil drilling opponents are "rethinking" their stance but the only California drilling supporter they quote is Republican Jerry Lewis.

It's obvious that Republicans see opportunity in high gas prices to roll back sound environmental policies, such as the offshore ban. But for what gain? Drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge would take 10 years to deliver oil to American pumps and would only meet about 4-6 months of US domestic demand. California's offshore oil pools would probably not produce much more than that.

Like McCain's gas tax holiday, offshore drilling is a gimmick designed to avoid the necessary fixes. Americans need to understand that gas prices will never come back down, and that cheap oil is a thing of the past. It's not something we have a right to - it's something we had for a few decades, but now it is over.

Republicans don't have a solution to high oil prices. Drilling in ANWR and off our coast would not ameliorate prices now, and wouldn't do so in 10 years - the rate of decline in North Sea and Mexican oil exports will far outweigh the new drills and rising global demand will continue to drive up prices.

Democrats would do well to follow Obama's lead and firmly reject McCain's drilling plan. It's time we accepted the fact that cheap oil is a thing of the past, instead of looking for more sources like a junkie desperately seeking another fix. We need to build a sustainable transportation infrastructure that will provide green jobs and economic development for the 21st century - instead of trying to string out the obsolete 20th century any longer.

Robert Cruickshank is a historian, activist, and teacher living in Monterey. He is a contributing editor at Calitics.com and works for the Courage Campaign, in addition to teaching political science at Monterey Peninsula College. Currently he is completing his Ph.D. dissertation in US history, on progressive politics in San Francisco in the 1960s and 1970s. A native Californian, he was raised in Orange County and educated at UC Berkeley.

Posted on June 19, 2008

Comments

Comrade Crickshank,

It is only left/liberal logic that can say if we don't have enough oil, lets not look for, find and drill for it to get more...

Proposed drilling in Anwar for the same reasons we should do so today was defeated during the Clinton Administration over 10 years ago. The stuff would be in your tank today if the call was made the other way then.

We don't know how much oil is offshore as we are not allowed even to look for it...

Exisitng 10 year long permits to drill for oil in the middle portion of our nation are held up for 7 years due to environmentalist posturing/stonewalling. The remaining POSSIBLE use of oil fields for only 3 years doesn't balance the investment made into the effort, hence no oil flows here also.

Enron made Gray Davis a "victim" during California's energy crisis of the day by how? Capitalizing on the states (a democratic party controlled legislature and governor) own inability to see a population growth and obvious increased demand for power. No new powerplants of any stripe were built in California.

Once you guys look in the mirror and see what is really there, then we may not do this to ourselves all the time. But it is more politically expedient to blame it ALL on someone else isn't it?

Posted by: Jay Gould at June 19, 2008 11:04 AM

Mr. Cruikshank:

The drill-now-everywhere advocates always seem to skip a step when they "explain" how their program will "lower" oil prices. Yes, drilling in ANWR and in the ocean off Santa Barbara will produce more oil. But why do the advocates assume that that new oil pumped in the U.S. will be sold in the U.S? All of the oil-extraction companies are global, and they're all classical capitalists. Even if they pump oil from under my back yard, their still going to sell it on the global markets wherever they can get the highest price. There is no guarantee that "American" oil will be sold to American refiners or that it will end up in the gas tanks of American motorists. If a Japanese buyer bids highest, it will get the oil. If a Chinese or Indian company outbids the Japanese, the oil will be sold in China or India. Capitalism owes no loyalty to any nationality. Its loyalty is to the highest profit, period. People who expect offshore drilling to reduce gasoline prices know little about petroleum and even less about how business works.

F.K. Plous

Posted by: F.K. Plous at June 19, 2008 11:57 AM

Mr. Plous,

There is only 85 Billion Barrels of oil produced annually when world demand has recently passed 86 Billion barrels annually...

Do you understand supply and demand?

Most of that oil is drilled from nations not very friendly to the US. They can cut the flow to us anytime, as Democrat President Jimmy Carter Learned in the 1970's...by default then there isn't enoughg oil for us either in that scenario.

So how will we avoid dependence on foreign oil if we can't replace it with our own production?

I suggest you rethink your socialist views of capitalism through the viewfinder of the above common sense and real world foactors which don't really subscribe to any political ideology.

Posted by: Jay Gould at June 22, 2008 09:51 AM

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