Political Expediency

The latest New Yorker has a small, but thought-provoking, article about the clusterfuck concerning rising energy prices. One little excerpt demonstrates the futility of emergency drilling in coastal waters of the United States:

"...Of course, the results of these or any other public-opinion surveys do not alter the underlying reality. The Department of Energy estimates that there are eighteen billion barrels of technically recoverable oil in offshore areas of the continental United States that are now closed to drilling. This sounds like a lot, until you consider that oil is a globally traded commodity and that, at current rates of consumption, eighteen billion barrels would satisfy less than seven months of global demand. A D.O.E. report issued last year predicted that it would take two decades for drilling in restricted areas to have a noticeable effect on domestic production, and that, even then, “because oil prices are determined on the international market,” the impact on fuel costs would be “insignificant.”..."

The New Yorker "Changing Lanes" by Elizabeth Kolbert

The most important point made in this excerpt is when Kolbert explains that oil is a globally-traded commodity. To assume that oil companies would restrict their sales of this oil to domestic consumers is awfully naive. Who really believes the myth of the benevolent entrepreneur? Apparently, the American government does. The proposed expansion of oil drilling is yet another example of doing what is politically expedient, rather than what works for the long-term.