My Comment to Jack Cafferty's Question Today

CNN's Jack Cafferty posed this question to viewers today:

Is drilling for oil in Alaska and off the coast the answer to high gas prices?

Here was my comment (it was still awaiting moderation when Jack read several viewer comments on the air at 4:55 Mountain Time today).

June 18th, 2008 6:24 pm ET

President Bush’s sudden push to open up potential oil fields in US coastal waters might have more credibility — as one of your reports pointed out this morning — if he had the guts to first reverse his own executive order banning that drilling, instead of trying to push it off onto Congress.

Right now, oil produced in Alaska doesn’t reach the US in any case, since Alaska’s heavy crude can only be refined in one US oil refinery in Washington state. Much of Alaskan oil is exported to Japan and other countries. How does that help gas prices in the U.S.?

If the oil companies don’t feel oil produced from US territory should be sent to U.S. consumers now, what assurance does the American public have that new drilling off U.S. coasts would help U.S. gas prices?

If John McCain and George Bush want to help American consumers, instead of lining the pockets of their oil industry buddies — which is what this is really about — why not propose legislation to require that any oil produced from U.S. states and territories be required to be sold to U.S. consumers, and be prohibited from being sold overseas?