Drill Here, Drill Now: The Song
By Tommaso Boggia - Sep 11th, 2008 at 4:22 pmThe same week that oily Department of Interior officials were caught with their pants down, their nostrils flaring, and their blood alcohol content inflated with industry-provided cocktails, country star Aaron Tippin released a song called “Drill Here, Drill Now” in an effort to prove the gullibility of Americans and the success of the conservative energy smear machine.
This is just another example of the failure of progressive institutions to frame the message of the most important issues of our time. As soon as gas prices started going up, something that was entirely predictable, Newt Gingrich launched his “Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less” campaign to convince Americans that all of their problems would be solved by drilling holes in the homeland. Problem is, there just isn’t much oil here, and even if we drilled everywhere possible, it would have a minimal effect on gas prices (if you don’t want to take my word for it, how about the Bush administration’s own Energy Information Administration?).
Instead of jumping on the occasion to push for tougher fuel efficiency standards, car-tuneup efficiency programs, and investments in renewable energy, once again progressives allowed conservatives to frame the messaging in this crisis, this time via a song that seems incredibly proud of its own ignorance.
Here are the lyrics (listen to the chorus here):
Hello… Is anybody out there listenin’ in Washington D.C.
This is the suffering voice of America crying out for relief
Now I don’t know what a gallon of gas costs up on Capitol Hill
But we sure know what it costs down here in Realityville
And the damage already done has been a mighty heavy toll
And if we’re gonna fix it we gotta start right here at home
CHORUS:
Drill here, drill now
How ’bout some oil from our own soil that belongs to us anyhow
No more debatin’ we’re tired of waitin’ everybody shout out loud
Drill here, drill now
Every time a foreign tanker pulls up to our shore
They got us over a barrel while they bleed us a little more
And think how much it costs just to bring it all that way
And how many American jobs that’d make if we were drillin’ in the USA
Oh and God forbid if our oily friends should decide to cut us off
We’d be standin’ around with our britches down now listen to me ya’ll
REPEAT CHORUS
Well the winds of change are blowin’
Yes and we recognize that need
But tractors, trucks, cars and planes can’t run on tomorrow’s dreams
So while we’re workin’ on the future we can’t ignore today
Cuz who knows how much time the alternative might take
Somethin’s gotta be done right now cuz friends it won’t be long
Before this great big country comes grinding to a halt
REPEAT CHORUS
No serious right-wing figure believes drilling will solve all the problems with energy in America. House Republicans have consistently been advocating an “all-of-the-above” approach that incorporates drilling, but also increased research in new technologies for energy conservation and new alternative energy sources.
And as for the claim it does nothing, that reflects a fundamental misunderstanding of the market, and a rather comical one at that. When gas was above $4 a barrel the angry left was ready to crucify “speculators” because of their gross power to manipulate prices.
And yet, now prices have dropped even though supply hasn’t really changed and the same people who spoke of speculators’ power to influence prices have ignored that the drop is because of the speculators gambling on an increased supply in the future.
Drilling has never been about being a long-term solution. It’s a short-mid range solution, designed to lower gas prices to offer relief to struggling middle and lower class Americans while technologies that actually work can be developed.
The fact that the left consistently opposes drilling just drives home the fact they think more of radical environmentalists than they do of the poor in America. Not a single one of their solutions will be feasible or accessible for the poorest of America, who are also the people hit the hardest by the energy crisis.
September 11th, 2008 at 7:01 pmHey Waterman, why not take some time and read some of the energy plans? Whereas Obama’s is an ‘all of the above’ plan, as you would call it, McCain’s plan is an insane combination of obsolete and increasingly expensive technologies that will result in an increase in energy prices, hurting the poor that all of a sudden conservatives are so concerned about.
Your arguments about drilling are unbelievable. You are saying that the whole reason that we are destroying previously pristine regions (the conservative lies about drilling being safer have been debunked over and over again), creating dangerous jobs, and spending insane amounts of capital is just to fool speculators into believing in a future magical supply? Many things have happened since the beginning of the summer to explain the decreasing prices, including a drastic reduction in miles driven, the rumors about opening of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and the closing of the Enron loophole.
The fact is that offshore oil drilling is not a solution at all, neither in the short, medium or long term. The Bush administration already opened up more land to drilling than any administration before him, yet the price has been steadily rising. Don’t you think it might be time to find another solution to our addiction rather than continuing poking holes at our veins until they collapse? We already have the technology to drastically increase fuel efficiency and we have public transit and smart growth plans that have worked wonders in places progressive enough to implement them. Europe has gas that costs much more than it does here, yet somehow they manage to have a quality of life much higher than we do here.
Finally, don’t even try to say that democrats are in the hands of radical environmentalists. Their newest energy plans in congress combine conservatively idiotic plans to drill for more oil, with incentives for renewables and efficiency. It is a true ‘all of the above’ proposal, yet, surprisingly, house conservatives are yet again unable to make themselves support a bill that isn’t an entire give-away to their oily friends waiting for them in their bedrooms (literally). You say that no serious right wing figure believes drilling will solve all the problems. You might want to tell your friend Newt and his campaign. If that is not what he is arguing, please let him know that his communication strategy is a failure, because that is definitely what it sounds like.
September 11th, 2008 at 7:45 pmWhen did I ever endorse McCain’s plan? I never said I liked it. Hell, I don’t even like the House GOP plan that much. I just hate the Obama and Gang of 10 approaches even more. I favor getting the government out of the way, auctioning of the government land to any interested parties, along with the claims to whatever lies underneath the land.
And when did I ever say fool speculators. Speculators are some of the smartest people on the market, and the ones that aren’t are the ones that don’t last very long. I’ll give it to you that fewer miles being driven has had an effect on the market. But the Strategic Petroleum Reserve? Your argument there makes no sense.
In effect you’re arguing my very point. Speculators react to expected alterations in supply and the effect that has on price. There is less expectation of a release of that compared to the expectation of more drilling being allowed. I don’t have the numbers on hand, but the drop in oil prices began shortly after Bush indicated support for removing the moratorium on offshore drilling and has since continued to fall as support for more drilling has increased. And that’s not even touching the disparity in amount between the Reserve and whats expected out of ANWR.
And have you bothered to examine what the parts of ANWR are that would be drilled in are? It’s a barren, desolate wasteland, well away from the worthwhile parts of the protected area. And these same arguments of destroying local wildlife were made back when drilling was first proposed in Alaska and since then the negative effect has been minimal. Has our approach to such things really gotten worse since then?
Creating dangerous jobs? That’s not an argument against drilling. No one makes anyone take the job. If they do it’s because they’ve weighed the risks against the gains and found it worth the chance. Typical though, plenty of those who think like you seem to feel people are too dumb to decide what is and isn’t good for them and that the government should decide it.
And as to our addiction to oil, yeah, I do think we should get off of it. But it rarely ever works to quit something cold turkey and oil is no different. The fact remains that the poor are always the last ones to get the benefit of new technologies. Better fuel economy on cars? Most of the least well off drive used cars - the ones that get the worst mileage. Public transportation? It takes time to build these systems, so what do you do in the meantime. And what about the rural poor, where public transportation isn’t feasible? Smart growth? That’s just progressive doublespeak for stealing property rights from the rightful owners.
And don’t even try to compare Europe to America on energy and transportation. The geographic make-up of Europe is so incredibly different than America’s as to make comparison worthless. On average Americans live much farther apart than Europeans do. Their society is more urban, and closer together. Mass transit is more fiscally and logistically viable. There is only one European nation that is comparable to America and that is Russia. And I think you’d agree that Russia lacks heavily in the things you suggest and is only getting by through its huge oil reserves that it makes use of.
It’s not even worth the time to argue about the Congresional Dems. Their plan is hardly all-of-the-above when its approach to drilling is such a half-assed attempt to appease an angry American electorate that wants real increases in drilling as part of the energy solution.
And Newt, he might be. But I hardly think of him as a serious figure these days. He’s just a figurehead. And in my opinion a bit of a tool as well, although probably for different reasons than you do.
September 12th, 2008 at 1:21 pm