The "Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less" Con

[SHRED]

Remember that slogan? It was brought forward from the "Drill Baby Drill" folks who claimed if Obama would just allow more drilling we could be "energy independent" and lower prices at the pump. They were so ignorant that they thought it was somehow the people of this Nation's oil rather than the multi-national petroleum interests who actually own it.

Ask them how those gas prices are working out for them. Ask them to repeat what they said back then.


This Month the U.S. Could Pass Saudi Arabia as the World’s Biggest Petroleum Producer

The "Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less" Con: Newt Won, America Lost

Back in the summer of 2008, incurable Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich pushed the slogan "drill here, drill now, pay less," claiming that making the U.S. more oil-independent would be a solution to high gas prices. Democrats, worried voters would reject the reality there's nothing we can do to lower market-set gas prices and absolutely terrified of saying no to Big Oil, embraced the slogan. Later, President Barack Obama implemented it as our national policy. Six years later, how's drill baby drill working out for you?
Today, while U.S. oil production is near all-time highs, gas prices also remain near all-time highs. Drill baby drill has been great for multinational oil companies, but terrible for American consumers. Meanwhile, we continue shoveling billions in annual taxpayer subsidies to those same oil companies.

A side effect of higher oil production is that oil transportation disasters are also at record highs. Oil train wrecks and spills, gas pipeline explosions, and oil pipeline ruptures are skyrocketing. Our communities, wildlife and clean air and water are now at the mercy of our national petro-state.

http://www.bluevirginia.us/diary/11828/the-drill-here-drill-now-pay-less-con-newt-won-america-lost


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[Vogon_Glory]

1. Ask Them About Plans To EXPORT That Oil!

Ask these deluded people about the oil companies' desire to REPEAL laws keeping such oil in the US and export it so it can be sold on the world markets.

The right-wingers claiming to be such economic realists and great defenders of "private enterprise" show an astonishing ignorance both of economics and how businesses really work. Telling them that if oil would be so plentiful and cheap as a result of "drill, baby, drill" that oil companies would seek to export it for bigger profits seems about as effective as trying to teach chickens how to play Mozart. The argument that corporations would do such things because their managements are expected to maximize such returns for shareholders and other investors seems to be completely lost on them.

I admit that I'm not one of DU's more progressive posters. I come from a back-ground that had a lot of economic conservatives. But unlike much of the current Teapublican party base, the righties (mostly now deceased) I grew up with had at least some business sense.

The current crop of enviro-bashing right-wing sheeple clearly don't.

[SHRED]

2. well put

[MatthewStLouis]

3. Yes, and isn't the Keystone Pipeline the same kind of deal?...

They get to pump their sludge across our pristine spaces, never mind the mess, and at the end it gets shipped away somewhere else. What a scam.

[gratuitous]

4. Too bad nobody can say anything about this

As soon as the Democrats sign on to a hare-brained scheme by the Republicans, they lose any chance they had of changing their minds later. Sure, it would be quite easy to say, "You know, we tried the Republican plan of 'drill here, drill now,' and it didn't work." But the only thing the political insiders will remember is, "But you agreed to it in 2008! Tap, tap, no tap-backs." And thus endeth any chance of going a different route.

So, we need to burn carbon as if it will never run out and takes no toll on the environment. We have to subsidize the most profitable companies in the history of the world. We have to pay top dollar at the pump for fuel. We can't explore alternatives or subsidize research or development of alternatives. We must stay on this ruinous, unsustainable and ultimately suicidal course or the bipartisan ghost of David Broder will rise up from the grave and say mean things about Democrats.

Too bad, so sad. It's just unpossible.

[woo me with science]

5. Iraqis forced to sign over 80 percent of their oil to multinational corporations.

But it's not an empire.