Have you been keeping up with offshore drilling news? Apparently the House passed a bill that would allow drilling 50 miles offshore or more. The Republican members of the house are livid. It’s a ruse, a sham, a joke, they say. All the good oil is between 3 and 50 miles offshore! Who prepared the report saying all the good oil is that close to shore? The Interior Mineral Managements Service … the very same people who have just been in the news for having wild sex and doing drugs with members of the oil industry. We should trust those people?

The Daily Show did a great bit on this subject last night.

And if anyone thinks that offshore drilling is going to save us from our rising gas prices, they need to look at this graph and note what a drop in the bucket it will be and how far down the road that drop will arrive.

I still stand firm in my belief that leases which are already held by the industry need to be used rather than sat upon and that no new leases or offshore rights need to be given until they are using the ones they currently hold. Better yet, no new leases ever. We need to get off the oil teat, and now is as good a time as any.