Economist Daniel Gross has a great column in Newsweek about why offshore drilling has become so popular, despite the fact that it's about as likely to drop gas prices and decrease foreign oil dependence as a group prayer session. His theories on drilling's exponential rise—particularly compared to the gas tax's crash and burn—include the following:
• Vast right-wing conspiracy: The gas-tax holiday was derided by the economic-policy wing of the Republican Party. By contrast, the Republican noise machine—the Wall Street Journal editorial page, Washington think tanks, talk- radio blowhards, the dwindling core of Capitol Hill Republicans—has marched in impressive message lock step for drilling.
• Screw the foreigners: Call it national security, or call it chauvinism, but drilling for domestic oil sets up a zero-sum game. Every barrel of oil produced here is one we don't have to buy from our long and growing list of enemies: Venezuela, Iran and ...
