9-14-08 by dugan
If Americans really want more $5 gasoline after the next hurricane, and more power for the oil lobby in Washington, the "drill now" campaign is the perfect vehicle. That connection hit me after reading Thomas Friedman’s Op-Ed column in the New York Times today. Friedman said: "[A]n America that is focused first and foremost on drilling for oil is an America more focused on feeding its oil habit than kicking it. … It reminds me of someone who, on the eve of the I.T. revolution – on the eve of PCs and the Internet – is pounding the table for America to make more I.B.M. typewriters and carbon paper. ‘Typewriters, baby, typewriters.’ "
The "Drill now" fever is not confined to Republicans, though Friedman’s column sees it as a GOP issue. Americans across much the political spectrum have bought the expertly sold political fiction that new drilling will lower gas prices and make the U.S. "energy independent."
Friedman’s gift is to illuminate economic stupidity:
Imagine for a minute that attending the Republican convention in St. Paul, sitting in a skybox overlooking the convention floor, were observers from Russia, Iran and Venezuela. And imagine for a minute what these observers would have been doing when Rudy Giuliani led the delegates in a chant of "drill, baby, drill!"
I’ll tell you what they would have been doing: the Russian, Iranian and Venezuelan observers would have been up out of their seats, exchanging high-fives and joining in the chant louder than anyone in the hall – "Yes! Yes! Drill, America, drill!" – because an America that is focused first and foremost on drilling for oil is an America more focused on feeding its oil habit than kicking it.
Why would Republicans, the party of business, want to focus our country on breathing life into a 19th-century technology – fossil fuels – rather than giving birth to a 21st-century technology – renewable energy? As I have argued before, it reminds me of someone who, on the eve of the I.T. revolution – on the eve of PCs and the Internet – is pounding the table for America to make more I.B.M. typewriters and carbon paper. "Typewriters, baby, typewriters."
Of course, we’re going to need oil for many years, but instead of exalting that – with "drill, baby, drill" – why not throw all our energy into innovating a whole new industry of clean power with the mantra "invent, baby, invent?" That is what a party committed to "change" would really be doing. As they say in Texas: "If all you ever do is all you’ve ever done, then all you’ll ever get is all you ever got."
Residents near and sometimes far from Hurricane Ike are paying gouger-level prices for gasoline. It’s not just because of the concentration of oil refineries in the storm’s path. It’s also a result the power of their oil company owners, who have kept American gasoline supplies at historic lows, storm or no storm. "Drill now" won’t change that. It will only let the same oil companies continue reaping record profits while government goes slow on better and diverse energy. Oil will call the shots. The economy will rot, but Exxon will grin.