This should have given Republicans a Boehner

Sometimes being a progressive supporter of Obama is harder than others but last week gave me some confusing signals. On one hand, we had the opening of new offshore drilling areas, and on the other we had new fuel efficiency standards. Now this could be taken as a nod to both ends of the political spectrum on energy security, but my intuition says its a strategic choice. The decision to increase fuel efficiency standards is a very wise thing to do, though not as wise as say, slowly increasing the gas tax. If we are to get serious about energy independence, the first step is to use less energy. Now, I can see that the opening of offshore drilling areas is probably the acceptance that we will always need some oil, even with higher fuel efficiency standards. Offshore drilling is how we can produce that oil locally. As much as I agree with this, I think this is a huge mistake. We will run out of oil eventually, we all know this, and having oil platforms off of Rehoboth Beach will not solve this problem. This oil could be used for much better uses, such as a national reserve, or a revenue source to diversify our energy profile.

By the way, the fact that John Boehner is not jumping up and down at this prospect is completely ridiculous. Party of no indeed.