It will take close to a decade to get any oil whatsoever from the offshore areas that are currently protected from drilling for environmental reasons. Even when the area reaches peak production in around 20 years, there is only oil to bring the price of gas down by 3-4 cents a gallon. These facts come from the Energy Information Agency and are well known to anyone who has bothered to look into the issue at all. That is why the NYT must be calling the McCain campaign stupid when it asserts that: "Mr. McCain has focused on offshore oil drilling and broad tax relief as steps to directly assist the greatest number of working Americans, by lowering taxes and, his campaign hopes, both gas prices and home foreclosures." Since Mr. McCain's plan offers little in the way of tax relief to middle income families against current law, it is unlikely that they believe that their plan will actually lower home foreclosure rates. Unless they are completely clueless they don't "hope" their offshore drilling plan will lower gas prices. This is just something they say to get votes and hope that the media will not call attention to the fact that they are lying.
--Dean Baker
