Obama Can't Pass Up This Opportunity

Close your eyes and picture this…Barack standing up in front of a crowd of 20,000 plus in Daytona Beach or Miami Beach with a life-sized computer enhanced poster of Florida’s spectacular coastline with renderings of potential oil derricks and platforms sitting just offshore as they do off the coast of Louisiana and off the coast north of Santa Barbara.

I don’t know if you’ve ever seen what these hideous looking oil platforms look like. Imagine the pristine palm tree lined beaches just waiting for you to lay down your blanket, cooler and beach ball, and as you and your family turn to face the crystal blue ocean lapping up onto the sand just inches from your sun-drenched feet, you gaze out on dark colored oil platforms that are probably five miles offshore, but seem like they’re close enough to swim to. It’s just an eyesore.

Showing what this will look like is exactly what Barack should do as he explains very calmly and concisely what McCain offers to the State of Florida. He needs to explain exactly why it is not just unnecessary for oil companies to be given the right to drill off the continental shelf of the United States, particularly Florida -- known for its number one industry, tourism -- but that even if it were somehow considered a good idea, the US consumer would not reap the benefits of any oil exploration from this drilling for many years to come. Certainly too late to provide any relief to our current gas price crisis.

Although John McCain has come out in favor of this potential drilling off our coasts, his close advisor and potential running mate, Florida Governor Charlie Crist, has consistently been against it, except he has now flipflopped on this issue under pressure of the Republican Party and the McCain campaign. He now miraculously supports investigating the prospect of drilling off Florida’s coastline.

It is imperative that Barack let his audiences know that the oil companies have more than enough untapped oil wells and oil leases sitting up in Alaska that they already own and are just holding on to for the future. They are managing the supply of oil and allowing the demand of the consumer just fine, thank you. Apparently the amount of oil sitting under the ground in the Naval grounds already under the control of many American oil companies vastly surpasses the amounts that could be encountered in any exploration of either America’s continental shelf and/or the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). We know that for certain. http://resourcescommittee.house.gov/images/stories/Documents/truth_about_americas_energy.pdf

Let’s make certain that this is thoroughly and thoughtfully explained to the American people, and he can do that standing in front of a huge crowd demonstrating what Florida’s coastline would look like under a McCain presidency. He also needs to clearly show that an Obama presidency will emphasize alternative sources of energy, a completely different mindset that doesn’t automatically look toward Saudi Arabia and its neighbors for its good graces when it comes to oil production, and that in additional to a windfall profits tax on oil companies, which is just one alternative to be considered, there are a myriad of paths that we can go down, like gasoline free cars, higher fuel efficiency standards, increased public transit access, etc.

John McCain is very predictable in his approach to this issue and has very clearly aligned himself with the oil companies and on the side of big business and the Bush/Cheney regime. This is a golden opportunity for Barack to show that he is staunchly and proudly on the side of the American consumer and our progressive energy future.