Tactical retreat: Democrats give in on drilling, for now

The Oklahoman Editorial

Published: September 25, 2008

Last week we observed an offshore oil drilling bill passed by the U.S. House was actually a fig leaf for Democrats weary of being on the wrong side of an issue the public widely favors. Fig leaf may have been overly generous.

The legislation's flimsiness was illustrated this week when Democrats said they would let the current federal ban on offshore drilling expire at month's end. It was an admission that last week's pretend drilling bill had a snowball's chances of getting through the Senate — monumentally better than the chance President Bush would ever sign it into law.

Instead of re-emphasizing their stance on drilling, Democrats chose to fight another day, when they believe there'll be more of them in Congress and a Democratic president in the Oval Office.

The House drilling bill was a charade, only allowing oil exploration 100 miles or more from the U.S. coast — 50 miles or more if individual states granted special permission. Of course, experts believe 80 percent or more of the 18 billion barrels of recoverable oil are inside the 50-mile limit.

Yet the victory earned by Republicans might be largely tactical. Strategically, offshore exploration remains far away. In a little more than a month, Democrats might control all of the political branches of government. If so they could easily reinstitute the congressional ban, and the president restore the executive ban, before oil producers do much more than float a few marker buoys off the coasts.

Drilling offshore is going to continue as a national debating point for some time, which means substantial reserves of American oil likely will remain unavailable to help in the overall energy equation.

While no one believes drilling for more oil will solve America's energy problems, it could play a key role. We're still a long way from there, even with this week's Democratic retreat.

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