Today's episode of Louisiana's Crappy Democratic Senator

The following excerpt (hyperlinks, graphic, and all) is lifted directly from this Informed Comment post which examines John McCain's confused approach to resolving the energy crisis through expanded US offshore drilling. I'm pretty sure Cole won't sue me over it, though.:

The US produces about 5 million barrels a day of petroleum and another 3 million barrels a day of liquefied fuel. That 8 million barrels a day is only about a third of what we use, so we import the rest. The lower 48 states produced about 4.4 million barrels of petroleum a day in 2006.

If all the known offshore fields were drilled and panned out,the lower 48's oil production would be increased by 7%. That would be 300,000 barrels a day.


Millions of barrels of oil a day produced by US and by world, with McCain's proposed increase through offshore drilling.

0.3 million barrels a day would make very little difference whatsoever to current oil prices even if it could be brought online right now. It would be a matter of a few pennies. And, in fact, if there were to be any impact of all of offshore drilling on prices, it would not come until 2020 or even 2030.

You will note that the Saudis just offered to increase their production by 0.5 million barrels a day, and the oil futures market just yawned. And that is in the real world, right now, not in some decade or two-decades-out in the future drilling scheme.

Moreover, US consumption of petroleum is increasing over time, so the extra 300,000 barrels a day would quickly be used up and then some.

Today President Bush addressed the nation and basically endorsed the McCain drilling scheme.

Meanwhile, here's CityBusiness who I also don't expect will be suing:

Landrieu backs Bush drilling plan

WASHINGTON - Sen. Mary Landrieu today praised President Bush for calling for an end to a moratorium on drilling off nearly all the U.S. coast.

Since 1981, the moratorium has banned the drilling. Bush today called on Congress to lift the ban, saying the U.S. needs to increase energy production.

“President Bush’s attempt today to expand energy production off our coasts is very welcome and is a wise position he should have taken earlier in the seven years we’ve been pushing this White House to get engaged," Landrieu said.

“Louisiana has been at the forefront of offshore innovation since the first U.S. platform was built off Creole, Louisiana, in 1938. We understand how essential a vibrant domestic energy sector is to our national security and to stabilizing energy prices."

Tune in next time for another exciting episode of Louisiana's Crappy Democratic Senator.