Obama Opens Offshore Areas to Oil Drilling -- But Why?

You know things are bad when an announcement from President Obama garners praise from climate obstructionist extraordinaire Sen. James Inhofe. Obama announced today a plan to open up vast swathes of U.S. coastal waters to potential drilling, including 167 million acres of ocean on the Atlantic coast, as well as areas of the north Coast of Alaska and the eastern Gulf of Mexico, the New York Times reports.

Inhofe responded by saying, "I appreciate the President's apparent willingness to consider offshore drilling as part of the Administration's energy policy," which is a great indicator, inversely, of how well this went over with many Democrats, environmentalists and those from affected coastal states.

The group Oceana said they were "appalled" by the president's "wholesale assault on the oceans," according to the Times story and the Sierra Club issued proclaimed its disappointment and urged Obama to instead seek to bring jobs through clean energy initiatives. The only good news is that Bristol Bay in southwestern Alaska will remain protected.

Of course the blogosphere is abuzz with speculations as to why Obama seems to have made such a huge concession to dirty energy interests. Is this related to a comprehensive climate and energy bill that is in the works, and if so, why the big give-away now?

Not only that, but Obama used his speech make another plug for the rest of his misguided energy plan — "clean" coal, biofuels and nuclear energy. The president said the decision for more drilling would be to move the economy off of fossil fuels and foreign oil and to more sources of "homegrown fuels and clean energy."

It's not clear how oil or gas, from our own waters or not, would be a move away from fossil fuels and toward clean energy. If Obama's concerned with peak oil predictions, then it would seem he'd be more interested in developing real renewable sources of energy. As we all learned during the gas price boom before the 2008 election while Sarah Palin was rallying for "drill, baby, drill," new drilling would not result in more oil on the market for at least a decade and would have no affect on current prices.

Of course, as Jonathan Hiske wrote for Grist, the real environmental and climate impact of this will depend on whether oil and gas companies actually think it's worth it to drill in these places. And Hiske ponders, does this mean that Dems have gotten some GOP senators on board with their climate and energy bill? But since no one knows, it has left many environmentalists hoping that that Obama has a grander plan. But is it just wishful thinking?

Photo credit: MikeBaird