Don't get too cozy, Obama

Obama has made a huge mistake here. Since the gulf oil spill happened thirty seven days ago, the Obama Administration has shied away from striking a definitive tone on BP's handling of the effort. This has presumably been because it happened in the wake of Obama's offshore drilling expansion. The Obama Administration likely wants to avoid the appearance of flip-flopping on the issue. The ensuing environmental catastrophe has the potential to sink the newfound confidence within the Democratic establishment.

The handling of this situation did not have to be so horrible. The Obama Administration opened new offshore drilling, a relatively popular move with the electorate, even though policy wonks predicted it would not have much effect. Obama could have moved the response away from being a referendum on offshore drilling, and toward a referendum on big oil companies influencing the bureaucracies enforcing safety regulations. Instead, Republican lawmakers somehow are arguing that Obama is getting cozy with big oil. This is a ridiculous claim, if you compare parties receiving corporate contributions from oil companies.

Don't get me wrong. Offshore drilling will not solve our energy problems in a meaningful and sustainable way. This being said, a weakened Obama presidency is the last thing proponents of alternative energy need right now. Lets reflect on the implications of this spill, but also remember the Obama Administration is not the culprit here.

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.