Oil Search Would Be Part of 'Comprehensive Energy Policy' Aimed at Lower Gas
Prices

By Jonathan Weisman
Washington Post Staff Writer
 Saturday, August 2, 2008; Page A04

Orlando, Aug. 1 -- Sen. Barack Obama suggested on Friday that he could
accept an expansion of offshore oil drilling as long as it was part of a
broader package of measures that would free the logjam of energy bills in
Congress.

"My interest is in making sure we've got the kind of comprehensive energy
policy that can bring down gas prices," Obama, the presumptive Democratic
presidential nominee, said in an interview with the Palm Beach Post. "If, in
order to get that passed, we have to compromise in terms of a careful,
well-thought-out drilling strategy that was carefully circumscribed to avoid
significant environmental damage -- I don't want to be so rigid that we
can't get something done."

Republicans have consistently said they could craft legislation that would
expand oil exploration on the outer continental shelf without jeopardizing
delicate shoreline habitats. But Democratic leaders in Congress have been
ardently opposed. Environmental groups, a key constituency, have been
unyielding in their opposition.

Instead, Democrats crafted a rhetorical answer to the GOP's drilling
campaign, calling on companies to begin oil drilling on the millions of
acres both on- and offshore that have already been leased to them but remain
untapped. Obama has taken up that line as part of his standard stump speech.

But with rising gasoline prices, polls indicate voters increasingly side
with the Republicans, even here in Florida, where opposition to offshore
drilling has always been strong. McCain switched his own position on the
issue earlier this year, as did Florida Gov. Charlie Crist (R), who had also
been opposed.

"It's clear that members of both parties are following John McCain's
leadership toward an 'all of the above' approach on energy that includes
nuclear, alternative energy, and off shore drilling," McCain's campaign said
in a statement. "We hope Barack Obama will realize that his ongoing
opposition to John McCain's realistic energy solutions and additional off
shore drilling is wrong."

Obama said in the Palm Beach Post interview that "the Republicans and the
oil companies have been really beating the drums on drilling. And so we
don't want gridlock. We want to get something done."

Obama, through his Senate office, issued a written statement welcoming a
proposal sent to Senate leaders Friday by 10 senators -- five from each
party -- that would lift drilling bans in the eastern Gulf of Mexico within
50 miles of Florida's beaches and in the Atlantic off Virginia, the
Carolinas and Georgia, but only if the states agree to oil and gas
development along their coasts. The states would share in revenue from the
development.

Drilling bans along the Pacific coast and the Northeast would remain in
place under the compromise.

The compromise "would repeal tax breaks for oil companies so that we can
invest billions in fuel-efficient cars, help our automakers re-tool, and
make a genuine commitment to renewable sources of energy like wind power,
solar power, and the next generation of clean, affordable biofuels," Obama
said.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/01/AR200...
199.html

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