Obama dramatically reduces drilling and then allows it to inch forward

At first, this looked like something to applaud-- and even something where Obama had surpassed Bush. But looking a little deeper, it's less than impressive-- and on net, another kick in the shorts for the economy.

From Jonah Goldberg at TownHall.com...

Too little, too late, too clever and for the wrong reasons. That's a good way to describe President Obama's decision to allow a little offshore drilling....his decision was entirely political. Aiming to win vital Republican support in the Senate for some kind of bipartisan cap-and-trade legislation, he lifted the ban where the polling was in favor of doing so. Sound science, energy policy and economics were the last things on his mind...

Back when oil cost $140 per barrel, President George W. Bush lifted the executive ban on offshore oil drilling. Once elected, Obama quietly reinstated it. Since then, Obama's Interior Department has been doing just about everything it can to slow, hamper and prevent oil and gas exploration in the U.S. and offshore. There's no reason to believe the administration won't keep doing that. Besides, Obama's announcement actually bans more promising oil and gas reserves from exploration than it opens up: nothing in the Pacific, nothing in the western Gulf of Mexico, nothing in southern Alaska....

From the WSJ editorialists...

Fourteen months into the Obama Presidency, we are grateful for small favors. So we suppose we should cheer the White House announcement yesterday that it is allowing new offshore oil and gas drilling. But this really is a smaller favor than the headlines claim....the details reverse or scale back nearly every drilling opportunity that has opened since 2008.

Add all of this up and yesterday's proposal had the net effect of putting some 13 billion barrels of oil and 41 trillion cubic feet of gas under lock and key, in return for blessing a few leases already underway....

The larger politics here is that Mr. Obama is hoping these drilling bits will sway Republicans to vote for his "comprehensive energy and climate bill"—aka cap and tax....

More damage to the economy = longer recession = more trouble for all levels of government = big policy changes in the future.

Should be interesting!