McCollum disagrees with Crist on drilling

A number of Florida Republicans, chiefly Gov. Charlie Crist, have changed their tune on offshore oil drilling.

Not AG Bill McCollum.

"I'm personally not in favor of drilling off Florida's coast," he told reporters this morning. He said he agreed with moves to explore new tracts very far away, but "any kind of wholesale opening of the coastline of Florida to drilling is just unnecessary to the bottom line of the energy needs of our country and a risk to the beaches and tourism and the beauty of our state."

McCollum said the state needs to foster more nuclear power. "I do believe we've had too many regulations for far too long, strangling that," he said, calling for a "special effort" to expedite requests from utilities.

Crist has said he agrees with Sen. John McCain's call to lift the federal ban on offshore drilling, but put the decision in state hands.

Comments

Who cares what Howdy Doody thinks

Of course CC favors drilling...

a republican with a brain! WHOOO HOO!!! you have to be a moron to think that drilling off our coast could better our own state economic struggles or our country's energy crisis

DWE is drilling in his pants

who is DWE? i see many posts, need names

It's heartwarming to see a Republican stand up for the people once in a while. I'm sure the wingnuts are hatin' on him right now.

[McCollum prefers taking down private companies with anti-trust/Trish conner]

Liberals dismiss studies that show a link between abortion and breast cancer, claiming they are biased because the people promoting the studies are "anti-choice."

For the same reason, no one should believe the Democrats' "energy" policies.

Democrats couldn't care less about high gas prices. The consistent policy of the Democratic Party, going back at least to Jimmy Carter, has been to jack up gas prices so we can all start pedaling around on tricycles.

Environmentalists are constantly clamoring for higher gas taxes as the cure-all to their insane global warming theory. Clinton proposed a 26-cent tax on gas. John Kerry said it should be 50 cents. Gore endorsed the Malthusian proposal of Paul and Anne Ehrlich in "The Population Explosion" that gas taxes be raised gradually to match prices in Europe and Japan.

The result is consumers now pay about 46 cents per gallon in gasoline taxes. That's not including taxes paid directly to the government by the oil companies and passed onto consumers. As the inestimable economist John Lott has pointed out, in the past 25 years oil companies have paid more than three times in taxes what they have made in profits.

B. Hussein Obama's response to soaring gas prices is to have the oil companies collect even more money from us at the pump, proposing a "windfall profits tax" on oil companies. "Corporate taxes" sound like taxes on rich people, but all they do is force corporations to collect taxes on behalf of the government.

Democrats have worked hard to ensure that Americans pay as much for gas as Europeans do. After a quarter-century of gas tax hikes, a ban on drilling for oil and a complete destruction of the nuclear power industry in America, I guess liberals can declare: Mission accomplished!

In response to skyrocketing gas prices, liberals say, practically in unison, "We can't drill our way out of this crisis."

What does that mean? This is like telling a starving man, "You can't eat your way out of being hungry!" "You can't water your way out of drought!" "You can't sleep your way out of tiredness!" "You can't drink yourself out of dehydration!"

Seriously, what does it mean? Finding more oil isn't going to increase the supply of oil?

It is the typical Democratic strategy to babble meaningless slogans, as if they have a plan. Their plan is: the permanent twilight of the human race. It's the only solution they can think of to deal with the beastly traffic on the LIE (Long Island Expressway).

How do liberals propose we acquire the energy required for the economic activity and production that results in light appearing when they flick a switch? The larger enterprise involved in producing that little miracle eludes them.

Liberals complain that -- as B. Hussein Obama put it -- there's "no way that allowing offshore drilling would lower gas prices right now. At best you are looking at five years or more down the road."

This is as opposed to airplanes that run on woodchips, which should be up and running any moment now.

Moreover, what was going on five years ago? Why didn't anyone propose drilling back then?

Say, you know what we need? We need a class of people paid to anticipate national crises and plan solutions in advance. It would be such an important job, the taxpayers would pay them salaries so they wouldn't have to worry about making a living and could just sit around anticipating crises.

If only we had had such a group -- let's call them "elected representatives" -- they could have proposed drilling five years ago!

But of course we do pay people to anticipate national problems and propose solutions. Some of them -- we'll call them Republicans -- did anticipate high gas prices and propose solutions.

Six long years ago President Bush had the foresight to demand that Congress allow drilling in a minuscule portion of the Alaska's barren, uninhabitable Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). In 2002, Bush, Tom DeLay and the entire Republican Party were screaming from the rooftops: Drill! Drill! Drill!

We'd be gushing oil now -- except the Democrats stopped us from drilling.

Drilling on only 0.01 percent of ANWR's 19 million acres was projected to produce about 10 billion barrels of oil. From all domestic sources combined, we currently produce about 1.8 billion barrels of oil per year. To a layperson like myself, 10 billion barrels seems like a lot of oil.

The other party -- plus John McCain -- ferociously opposed drilling in ANWR, drilling offshore or drilling anyplace else. Instead of Drill! Drill! Drill!, their motto could be: Kill! Kill! Kill!

They refuse to believe our abortion studies? I refuse to believe they care about Americans having to pay high gas prices.

[I Haunt Houses]

Mrs. McCollum.

[McCollum is anti free market---let Trish Connor tax microsoft and put it out of businss]

Back in 2002, Microsoft agreed to a landmark settlement in its huge antitrust case with the federal government. Part of the settlement was that Microsoft agreed to oversight of its business activities to ensure the company did not abuse its monopoly position in the computer operating system market. Most of those restrictions were set to lapse on November 12, 2007, but Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, who is responsible for overseeing the antitrust settlement, has agreed to a delay to consider whether those restrictions should be extended another five years.

Microsoft and the attorney's general of 17 states (and the District of Columbia) jointly petitioned the court, asking more time be allowed for filings and for the judge to consider the arguments. The delay could push Kollar-Kotelly's decision back to end of January 2008.

The U.S. Justice Department has already filed an argument that most of the Microsoft oversight provisions should be allowed to lapse on November 12. Last year, Microsoft agreed to extend a provision covering communications protocols licensing into 2009. However, two groups of states are petitioning the court to extend remaining antitrust monitoring provisions for another five years, arguing that the sanctions imposed against Microsoft have not leveled the playing first in several key technology markets, including Web browsers and digital media players. One group of states is headed up by California, and includes Massachusetts, Minnesota, Kansas, Iowa, Connecticut, and the District of Columbia; the second group is headed up by New York, and includes Maryland, Louisiana, and Florida.

[Appoint Anti-Trust antifree market anti business deputies]

Why did McCollum appoint Trish Connor as a deputy. Tax private companies by instituting a bureaucrats nose into business matters and extract millions. Gee with a republican like that, who need liberals.

See! Let a Republican do something decent for a change, and the wingnuts dogpile 'em.

VOTE REPUBLICAN OR WE'LL ALL DIE TOMORROW!

[Flagophile]

1:49,

Your post is replete with inaccuracies, half-truths, and, frankly, laughable assertions.

Too many to address while at the office but some merit a quick discussion.

First, 5 years ago nobody proposed off-shore drilling because gas prices were affordable.

Second, most respectable scientists estimate that there are roughly 16 billion barrels of oil in ANWAR. We import roughly 11 billion barrels of oil per year. That means that we have a full year and a half of oil in ANWAR.

Suggesting that drilling in ANWAR will solve our problems is idiotic, at best.

In addition, you gloss over the fact that most analysts agree that drilling now will not lower the price of oil in the short-term.

Finally, you neglect to address in your blathering comment (probably due to your ignorance) that oil companies currently have millions of acres of unexplored, leased land that they can drill. They don't do so because they don't have the capability to refine it and bring it to market. The same problem they will have with off-shore drilling.

The solution is not more oil but rather developing alternative energy sources. We cannot continue our dependence on oil. Period.

All alternative energy sources identified to date (excluding coal and nuclear) use more energy than they produce. They only work because of tax credits and federal subsidies. For instance, the pay back period on a solar panel is infinity. It takes more than one gallon of petroleum based fuel to produce a gallon of ethanol. Did you know that the boilers in the ethanol plants are fueled with natural gas and not ethanol? They don't use the ethanol because without the federal subsidy, it is way too expensive. Alternative energy is the mantra of self deluded leftists. It is the opiate of the ignorant.

[Oil King!]

All you gas-guzzling pinheaded lemmings just don’t get it.

We can drop a Tonka Toy on Mars to drive around for two-years and take pictures… but we can seem to develop alternative energy resources, or make a decent fuel-efficient car… right here on earth.

Good Lord, no wonder you dipsticks buy Hummers.

Flagophile - The answer is both drilling AND developing alternative energy sources. And nukes.

Flagophile - Of course drilling now won't lower the price of oil in the short term. It will affect the price of oil 5-10 years from now when the first barrels would hit the market. Maybe it keeps gas from going over $10 a gallon.

[Donald Lance]

Just to pile on Flag because he likes to use the word "ignorant", it's estimated that by 2010, gas prices will be $7 a gallon. At that price, there will be approx 17 million less cars on the road in the good ole' USA. Do you think your car insurance rates will decrease because of a risk decline? Anyway, money is made when things move around. Buying and selling require transportation of goods. Without efficient transportation, the dustbowl days of the '30's will look like boomtimes compared to what we face going forward. People in the Northeast will be paying thousands to heat their homes vs. the hundreds they were paying just 2 years ago. Take thousands out of your pocket and what does that do to your purchasing power? Without things being bought and sold, there is no tax revenue.
So new oil production now becomes mandatory for Opec stated today that in 2009 there will only be a surplus of a million barrels available to the free market. Throw an Israeli attack on Iran into the equation and you are now on the short end of the supply line. How does anybody plan to get around without fuel next year - let alone 5 years from now.
Yes, alternative is the ultimate goal, but there is nothing today that can replace oil on a global scale for energy. It is the lifeline of this economy. Without it, nobody will be able to afford going to work, prices of everything will be inflated beyond the means of the average citizen, and heating one's home will become a luxury! How can you honestly say that we should not drill for oil knowing what waits for us going forward? To me, that is ignorance at its best Flag! Your response will be welcomed.

[It's expensive, y'all]

I don't have no money left after I fill up the Escalade. But I do look hot, yall.

"I'm personally not in favor of drilling off Florida's coast"

geez, another freaking moron - it's not off the coast, it is a hundred miles out
---
"He said he agreed with moves to explore new tracts very far away"

well duh, that's what we're talking about too - 100 mi is "far away", any further and you're almost in galveston!