offshore oil exploration

The national debate over offshore oil drilling picked up again today at a hearing in the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. Though discussion wasn't as heated as in the '08 Presidential campaign that saw the Republican Party rally around the "Drill, Baby, Drill" slogan, the trade-offs Senators are going to have to weigh when settling national policy were put on full view.

The Committee passed its portion of the climate bill in June, and it included an amendment that would allow drilling for oil as close as 45 miles from Florida’s Gulf Coast – and even closer in the Destin Dome area off Pensacola.

Sens. Lindsey Graham, John Kerry and Joe Lieberman, working on a climate bill proposal of their own, see increased offshore drilling as a necessary compromise for securing passage of a climate law that would reduce greenhouse gas emissions.  

Today's hearings were called to address concerns raised last June on the environmental impacts of offshore development.

“Access to the vast resources of the OCS [outer continental shelf] is critical; we need it and it’s good for this country,” Shell president Marvin Odum argued at the time.

But many senators and organizations remain far from convinced that tells the whole story.

The picture above, via CleanBeta, is worth a book -- and then some.

One look, and it becomes readily apparent that drilling for oil in offshore waters is not the cure-all its supporters assert. Not even close.

See that itsy, bitsy sliver of aqua blue? Well that represents the total impact of new offshore drilling on America’s energy supply. And it ain't much -- some 200,000 barrels per day at peak production.

On Day 3 of the RNC, vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin took center stage -- along with domestic oil drilling.

The drill-here, drill-now message poured out all over the convention to the roars of a pumped-up Republican crowd, who spontaneously took up the chant: "Drill, Baby, Drill!" Astonishing.

The phrase was coined by Maryland Lieutenant Governor Michael Steele, who said during his remarks:

So, do you want to put your country first? Then let's reduce our dependency on foreign sources of oil and promote oil and gas production at home.

In other words, drill baby drill! And drill now!

It stuck.