Democratic Senator Richard Durbin
of Illinois declared, “We can’t
drill our way to lower prices.”

When it comes to domestic oil production, the Democrats and their Green/Left supporters are all singing from the same deranged hymnal. In May, one of the choir leaders, Democratic Senator Richard Durbin of Illinois declared, “We can’t drill our way to lower prices.” Never mind that 85 percent of America’s Outer Continental Shelf is offlimits to oil and gas exploration. Forget that the offshore areas that John McCain and George W. Bush want to open to exploitation might contain 86 billion barrels of oil and 420 trillion cubic of natural gas. For reference, the U.S. consumes about 7.6 billion barrels of oil and 22 trillion cubic feet of gas per year.

Instead, consider the following reasons why the U.S. needs more offshore drilling.

1. The big discoveries are happening offshore. In September 2006, Chevron, Devon Energy, and Norway’s Statoil ASA announced a major discovery with the Jack No. 2. The well in the deepwater of the Gulf of Mexico, about 270 miles southwest of New Orleans, found a major field in a geological area called the lower tertiary trend. It may hold up to 15 billion barrels of oil, an amount that could boost U.S. reserves by 50 percent.

And last November Petrobras announced the offshore Tupi discovery, which may hold 8 billion barrels of oil equivalent. It’s the second largest oil find in the last 20 years. Since then, the Brazilian oil giant has announced numerous smaller offshore fields containing sizable quantities of oil and gas.

2. Refusing to increase domestic production strengthens the hands of foreign producers. I often disagree with the views promoted by Ariel Cohen of the Heritage Foundation. But on June 20, Cohen wrote a piece on oil prices and domestic drilling that had it just about right: “The biggest roadblock on the way to more U.S.produced oil is the Democratic majority in the Congress and its fellow travelers. Oilrich rulers, from King Abdullah I of Saudi Arabia to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to Hugo Chávez, are probably opening champagne.”

Thus, while the Democratcontrolled Congress professes a desire to reduce America’s reliance on foreign oil in December it passed the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, it refuses to allow drilling in areas that contain huge quantities of oil and gas, including the offshore areas and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Doing so ensures that America will continue its current level of dependence on foreign oil.

3. Refusing to allow more drilling will mean less supply, and thus higher prices, over the long term. On June 20, Barack Obama declared that more drilling would not lower gasoline prices “this year, next year, five years from now.” It’s true that the lack of available drill ships and the long lead time needed to develop offshore fields – including leasing, drilling, and development – will mean that any new oil production from those offshore fields is perhaps a decade away, or more.

But the implications of the offshore drilling ban go beyond shortterm gas prices or longterm supplies. Psychology matters. The oil markets are nervous. Traders are increasingly convinced that there will be tight supplies for the foreseeable future, and they are bidding up prices. By continuing to lock out offshore territories containing billions of barrels of oil and trillions of cubic feet of gas, Obama and the Democrats are providing more reason for oil buyers to believe that crude supplies will remain tight for years to come.

Finally, the Democrats are willfully ignoring the neartotal oil dependence of U.S. transportation. According to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, the U.S. now has about 251 million registered motor vehicles, a fleet that includes 6.6 million motorcycles and 135 million passenger cars. The U.S. also has over 8,000 commercial aircraft, 224,000 general aviation aircraft, and 12.7 million recreational boats. We can talk about renewable energy all day, but those millions of machines cannot run on sun juice and sails. The transition toward a nonoil consuming transport fleet will likely take most of the 21st century.

America needs oil. The world needs oil. And we’re going to continue needing it – particularly for transportation – for decades to come. By preventing the exploitation of domestic oil resources, the Democrats are hurting America’s longterm interests. Unfortunately, it may take much higher oil prices, perhaps even $200 or $300 per barrel, before they realize how ruinous their energy policies have been. And those high prices will be most hurtful to the poor and working class – the very same people the Democrats claim to represent.