Originally Posted by bhutocracy

This is what people who say oil prices will go to $4 a gallon don't understand, aside from there not actually being enough off shore oil to really affect the global supply, it's not as if BP sells their oil any cheaper than the saudi's (on a sweet to sweet, sour to sour basis), the only real benefit is jobs and resource taxes/lease sales... maybe even corporate taxes if you're lucky and the company isn't registered in a tax haven.

If you support drilling offshore to keep the price of gas down then you basically support anything, like CAFE standards. If Americans drove cars as efficient as Europeans it would have more of an effect on gas prices at the pump than drilling offshore with the added advantage of being better for the environment... personal transport only it would save roughly 900mmbbl a year.. (which is jack all, but so is offshore drilling.)

I fully support heavily regulated offshore drilling, it's just amusing to see people that think it's some kind of magic bullet to energy independence.