Obama, drill-happy?

(Graph by the New York Times.)

Last week, President Obama proposed to open vast expanses of water along the Atlantic coastline, the eastern Gulf of Mexico and the north coast of Alaska to oil and natural gas drilling.

Some see it as a concession to oil-hungry Republicans who would then be more likely to support a renewable energy bill. That strategy can backfire, though.  It reminds me of the immigration reform debate of 2006 and 2007 when the Republican clamored for securing the border as a necessary first step to broader reform. So they hired more Border Patrol agents, bought more technology and built a wall. And that was it. They never moved on to reforming the broken immigration system. Even worth, now three years later, we are once again hearing about how we need to secure the border. When do we get to move on to Phase 2?

This blogger thinks if we drill now, we'll realize the shortsightedness of the "drill, baby, drill" philosophy and drill less later. That's wishful thinking.