Drilling Down on John McCain: (Snake) Oil Salesman?

When he's not standing in a supermarket cheese aisle holding forth unsteadily on the definition of the Iraq surge or at a German beer garden outside Columbus (while U.S. Sen. Barack Obama spoke to 200,000 in Berlin), U.S. Sen. John McCain has his eyes on what he sees as the holy grail that will clinch his victory come November 4: offshore drilling, a.k.a. The Big Lie.

The Big Lie is all McCain has left in his politcial arsenal. Admitting early on that he knew squat about the economy (hello -- what were you thinking?), McCain and the rest of his party have clamped their rhetorical jaws down on on high gasoline prices and offshore drilling like wounded, ferocious badgers fighting for their lives. McCain, once the candidate who reigned supreme on foreign policy and national defense, had to give that up after Obama sank his-three pointer -- literally and figuratively -- early on in his Middle East/European tour.

So, back to offshore drilling and gas prices. McCain was no doubt devastated when Dolly spurned his advances yesterday, forcing him to cancel his trip to an offshore oil rig in Louisana.

Now, I am no environmental/energy expert, but I do fill up my car and I do care about climate change, so that gives me the street creds to blog on offshore drilling as far as I am concerned.

There is no doubt the McCain and his fellow Big Liars are getting some traction on the offshore drilling issue. Most Americans are understandably and justifiably frustrated and angry about high gas prices. A new NBC/Wall Street Journal poll show that energy is the top economic issue with voters. The same poll says that respondents 42% of respondents preferred Democrats for dealing with energy policy, versus 22% favoring Republicans, although the Democrats have slipped in recent months. The poll goes on to say that there is substantial support for offshore drilling.

But hold your drill bits. What about this poll?

According to a national poll conducted over the past week by Belden Russonello and Stewart, and released yesterday: 

The American public is not buying the arguments of President Bush and the oil industry that new drilling will lower gas prices, a new poll finds. Despite a well-funded campaign to convince lawmakers to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska and the offshore waters of the Outer Continental Shelf to drilling, and to allow new oil shale projects in the Rocky Mountain West, a majority (54%) of Americans do not see more drilling as a solution to high gas prices. Instead, the public overwhelmingly believes (76% to 19%) that policymakers should focus on investing in new energy technologies including renewable fuels and more efficient vehicles rather than expanding exploration and drilling for more oil.

So what is the average bear to make of all this contradictory information?

Check out this fantastic piece that ran on NPR. It is chock full o' facts about what offshore drilling NOW really means:

No one says that drilling offshore would change gas prices today. The Department of Energy says there may be 18 billion barrels of oil in coastal waters, but they also say that drilling for it would not have a significant impact on production or prices until 2030.

Even people in the oil industry say drilling won't ease the oil pinch. Matthew Simmons is head of Simmons and Company, among the largest banks investing in energy. "We basically wasted away 20 years," he said. "Now, basically, it's a terrific idea, but we ran out the clock. It's really misleading to hold that out as a panacea. It won't work. It might work for our grandchildren."

Geologists have identified reservoirs or undersea "structures" that might contain oil. But Simmons says that's guesswork. "We don't have any idea whether any of it is there," he said.

But first, the government has to lease the offshore sites to oil companies. The companies then have to probe the seabed to find out what's there. Then there are years of exploratory drilling, says Simmons — if anyone can find rigs to do the drilling.

"The problem is that the worldwide capacity to build rigs now has a backlog going out until about 2013, and we won't add enough rigs to even start to replace the very old rig fleet that we have," he said.

All of that before any oil actually comes out of the seabed.

Even McCain admitted at a June forum in Fresno, California, that offshore drilling would have mostly a "pyschological impact." (Echoes of Phil Gramm and "mental recession?") 

According to NBC News:

Yesterday, McCain admitted that his offshore drilling proposal would probably have mostly "psychological" benefits, NBC/NJ’s Adam Aigner-Treworgy reports. At a town hall in Fresno that primarily focused on energy issues, McCain was asked a question about the price of gas and the viability of various short-term solutions. 

"In the short term I'd like to give you a little relief for the summer on the gas tax," McCain began, referring to his controversial proposal to temporarily suspend the federal tax on gasoline. But then he made a surprisingly candid admission (emphasis added): "I don't see an immediate relief, but I do see that exploitation of existing reserves that may exist -- and in view of many experts that do exist off our coasts -- is also a way that we need to provide relief. Even though it may take some years, the fact that we are exploiting those reserves would have psychological impact that I think is beneficial."

And most insulting of all for McCain? Enter T. Boone Pickens, atrociously wealthy Texas oil man, financial godfather of the Swiftboat camapign that helped sink U.S. Sen. John Kerry's presidential bid and general supporter of men like McCain. And what does he do? He says offshore drilling is a bunch of snake oil. He's hanging around with Democrats, investing gazillions of dollars in wind energy and no doubt making McCain's legendary temper flare. In communications parlance, he is off message -- way off.

Updated July 29: I feel a little swiftboated -- or oil barged -- myself by T. Boone Pickens when it comes to energy policy. Newly green last week, this week, T. Boone is singing a new tune. Now he wants to invest in solar energy and drill everywhere possible -- offshore, in ANWR, in his living room -- you name it. While I am pleased about his wind farms, his insistence on drilling at any cost is very short-sighted.  

To wrap things up, check out this great column by the New York Times' Timothy Egan to get the whole story on Pickens.

I have no doubt that McCain is going to cling for dear political life to the offshore drilling issue. But the era of Slick Willie is over. Meet (Oil) Slick Johnny.