Democrats Know their Big Oil Facts, Trounce Republican Talking Points

We’re getting it from both sides: President Bush and the Republican talking heads vs OPEC and the press:

From the Globe: Bush yesterday pressed Congress to lift a moratorium on drilling off the east and west coasts of the United States…could allow fields holding 18 billion barrels of oil to be developed, easing the economic pain caused by the high price of energy, he said. "Unless members are willing to accept [gasoline] prices at today's painful levels or even higher, our nation must produce more oil. And we must start now."

According to the Guardian: Crude oil prices rose sharply on the world's commodity markets tonight after the head of Opec dismissed as "irrational and illogical" a call for the cartel to pump more oil. Chakib Khelil said the near doubling of oil prices over the past year was due to geopolitical tension, speculation and a shortage of refining capacity rather than a failure by producers to supply enough crude

Fox News had its own take with Neil Cavuto, grilling Democratic Rep. Rob Andrews of NJ about the 68 million acres of unexplored land the oil companies are just sitting on, while reaping huge profits. Rep Andrews did not back down from the facts and real world solutions. Cavuto was not so lucky confirming his theory, that oil companies would be willing to exchange the land they lease now for better areas of development, when he interviewed an industry propagandist. It’s also clear from the interview big oil is dragging its feet with excuses like: extensive research planning and exploration takes a lot of time. Well, if they got the new drilling sites, that would also take a lot of time to explore, right?