Off-Shore Drilling Boundaries: Dictated by Politics

What? Barack Obama deciding where to allow offshore drilling based upon not scientific research, but upon political calculations? Shocking!

Well, we alluded to this yesterday, but the New York Times, with a deeper understanding of the mind of Barack Obama ("It is perilous to study too deeply the arts of the Enemy, for good or for ill"), spells it out more clearly:

Mr. Obama’s plan, delicately pieced together by the Interior Department with White House input, carved out a large coastal buffer zone in the eastern gulf to mollify Senator Bill Nelson, Democrat of Florida, an opponent of drilling there. It also included continued access to the oil fields off the North Slope of Alaska to win the support of Alaska Senators Mark Begich, a Democrat, and Lisa Murkowski, a Republican.

Most New England officials, including Maine’s two Republican Senators, Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, are considered swing votes on energy legislation. They strongly oppose offshore drilling, and the North Atlantic was exempted. And because there is almost no support for drilling and there is little recoverable oil off the Pacific Coast, the whole area was declared off limits, said Ken Salazar, the interior secretary.

As foreign policy issues are decided on personal pique (see Israel & Honduras), key domestic policy with far-reaching long-term implications are decided upon by political calculus, in this case, who can assist Obama with his next jihad: Cap and Trade. And please don't tell me everyone does it. Not to this extent, not when our energy supplies and our national security are so tightly intertwined, not when the people of these states now hold radically different views than their elected officials do.

There's a Jersey angle here as well:

...by opening the mid-Atlantic region, from Delaware south to Central Florida, for oil exploration, Mr. Obama angered New Jersey’s two Democratic senators, Frank Lautenberg and Robert Menendez, who have been generally supportive of Mr. Obama’s push for climate legislation.

Mr. Menendez issued a strong statement Wednesday, saying, "I have let the administration know that if they do not protect New Jersey from the effects of coastal drilling in the climate change bill, then my vote is in question.”

Oh, bullllll-sh*t!!! Menendez has been know to carp about legislation and caveats within bills in the past, but like most whores, he's a cheap date, and will easily give up any opposition to a cap and trade bill in exchange for a few pounds of sand for the Jersey Shore beaches.

Again, it's about political calculation. Menendez (D-La Raza) and Lautenberg are hardcore lefties who aren't smart enough or motivated enough even to angle for the energy equivalent of a "Cornhusker Kickback". These clowns are a lock, and Obama knows it. Let the hens cluck, they'll fall in line and march to the chopping block in the end...

Of course, the question is whether Lautenberg (battling cancer) or Menendez (battling a recall) will even be around to vote for a cap and trade bill. Chris Christie, a foe of all taxes, awaits in the wings, with a short list of replacements that can disrupt the Democrat's plans like a springtime snowstorm...