The next oil spill could reach the coast days earlier if The Weekly Standard‘s Bill Kristol has his way. Kristol told Fox News’ Chris Wallace that he would like to see future drilling closer to shore.

“Look, it was a bad accident but the fact is I think we get one-third of our domestic oil from the Gulf, from offshore drilling in the Gulf. We need it. We can’t cut back on it,” said Kristol.

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He admitted it was a bad accident, but blamed it on the rig’s distance from the coast.

“If we hadn’t stopped closer-in drilling after the Santa Barbara accident 40 years ago — we’ve had these Congressional restrictions until 2008, for 40 years — we’d have more drilling closer in which is probably less dangerous, less treacherous than trying to drill 50 miles out from the coast,” Kristol explained.

But it’s not just drilling closer to shore that Kristol wants. The neoconservative is also calling for onshore drilling in Alaska’s ANWR.

“If we want to have some onshore drilling we have this thing called ANWR up in Alaska which is right there. There is no waves, no ocean. It’s right there and perfectly easy to drill. A lot of oil there. I’m a drill, baby, drill person,” he said.

And just in case there was any doubt about his positions on energy, Kristol also claimed “everyone agrees, including environmentalists” that not building new nuclear power plants was a “wild overreaction” to Three Mile Island.

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This video is from Fox’s Fox News Sunday, broadcast May 2, 2010.



