The Obama administration is expected to announce its plans regarding furthering production of offshore oil later this week and possibly as soon as tomorrow.  This is an announcement we’ll be watching closely.

Regular visitors at The Hayride know that Obama recently announced that there would be no new offshore leases in federal waters during his administration.  Now it seems that he might be reneging, as he tries to build a bipartisan coalition in support of long stagnant Cap & Trade legislation.

Expanded drilling activity will undoubtedly be billed as good for the economy and job creation, and good for our national energy independence; and Republicans have been saying these things for years, with their words falling on the deaf ears of the majority party.  Such words are true – domestic production of the oil we will inevitably use can only be better than imported oil.

If we are able to refine it…

Buying support for Cap & Trade legislation and other climate regulations with increased domestic oil production is counterproductive.  There is no advantage to producing the oil if climate legislation causes its refining and consumption to be prohibitively expensive, which it would do.

We mustn’t fall into that trap.  Cap & Trade, green jobs initiatives, EPA empowerment to control greenhouse gas emissions, and EPA regulation of hydraulic fracturing will cause new offshore oil leases to become worthless.  That’s the only reason this administration would reverse its public posture on the issue.