Barack Obama announces plan to open oil exploration off of the East coast of America

Today Barack Obama announced his plan to begin oil exploration off of the East coast of the United States. It is not all that often that I agree with a position that the president has taken, but this in one of those rare times that I do agree with him– if he is serious about it. I am not sure that he is really serious about it, but I hope that he is.

Under Barack Obama’s plan– which is similar to the plan that President Bush put forward– oil exploration would be allowed on the East coast, parts of Florida, and in the Gulf of Mexico near the shores of Florida. As a candidate for president, Barack Obama assured Florida residents that he would keep the moratorium in place that banned the exploration for oil off of Florida’s coast.

In June 2008, then-Sen. Obama told reporters in Jacksonville, Florida, “when I’m president, I intend to keep in place the moratorium here in Florida and around the country that prevents oil companies from drilling off Florida’s coasts. That’s how we can protect our coastline and still make the investments that will reduce our dependence on foreign oil and bring down gas prices for good.”

This new proposal is a direct opposite position than the one that he had taken during the campaign and it is one campaign promise that I hope he breaks. However I have two questions. The first question that I have is, what is motivating him to break this promise?

There are three possibilities that I can think of for this change of heart, if indeed he plans to move forward with this proposal.

Reason number one: He really believes that this is part of a solution to move towards energy independence from the Middle East.

Reason number two: He understands the damage that he has done in regards to bipartisanship and civility in the underhanded way he and the Democrat leadership passed healthcare reform and he is trying to heal the wounds of this legislation by throwing a bone to the right in an effort to bring the country back together.

Reason Number three (the reason I believe is the most likely): He is offering to drill off of the coast as a compromise when he decides to push his cap and trade proposal through congress.

Taking these three possibilities in order. I do not believe that Barack Obama feels that this is a legitimate way for the United States to achieve energy independence from the Middle East. I believe that he honestly thinks that moving forward on alternative energy is the way to go on this issue. Everything that Barack Obama campaigned on when it came to this issue leads me to believe that he does not believe this is a viable option.

I also do not believe that this is an effort to heal the wounds that he has inflicted on the country over the healthcare reform bill. I believe that Barack Obama thinks that he knows what is best for the American people and that the American people will realize he was right on healthcare reform some day. He believes that the American people will eventually forget the underhanded way congress passed this legislation once they see the good he hopes this bill will produce.

The last reason is the reason I feel is most likely. He intends to push cap and trade legislation that will further damage the United States economy and he hopes that by adopting a position that is similar to President Bush’s position he will be able to win over enough votes to pass the cap and trade legislation.

Let me state for the record here that I also believe that alternative energy is part of the solution to end– or at least diminish– our dependency on foreign oil. But it is only part of the solution, increased domestic oil production should also be part of the solution. Cap and trade is not part of the solution. Cap and trade has nothing to do with energy independence and it never did. It wasn’t until people became skeptical of the notion of cap and trade that the environmentalists tried to spin cap and trade into an issue of energy independence and predictably from there into an issue of national defense. Cap and trade was always about and will always be about global warming– an issue whose very legitimacy is in doubt with the disclosure of Climategate.

We will soon find out if Barack Obama is serious about this issue. If he takes this issue as seriously as he did the healthcare reform issue he will let nothing stop him from passing it. He can simply dictate to congress what he demands and tell them that they WILL pass this bill, as he did with healthcare reform. He will tell congress that it doesn’t matter what people think about this because it isn’t about politics. Just as he did with healthcare reform. He forced healthcare reform upon the American people through dictate, and he can do the same thing here if he truly believes it is what is best. I am not condoning this action, I am merely stating that it can be used as a barometer to gauge how serious he is about drilling off of the United States coast.

This leads me to the second question I have about Barack Obama’s offshore drilling proposal. How many Democrats that opposed this idea when it was proposed by President Bush will flip on the idea now that it has been proposed by a Democrat president. If ANY do, it will be an indictment upon them and a clear acknowledgement that they did not oppose the position just the person who proposed it.

In the end, I believe that this proposal is going nowhere. In fact I believe that Barack Obama only proposed it because he knows that it is going nowhere. This is just a chance for Barack Obama to appear as though he is reaching out to the right while knowing that it will never come to light. In my opinion I think that this is a great political move for the president but I am not expecting anything to come from it. We have heard this story before and the ending is always the same.

I hope that something happens here– but not at the expense of passing cap and trade– but I am very doubtful we will see any progress on this issue.