We present President Obama the Flip Flop of the Year Award for his remarkable switch on offshore drilling.

In response to our April Fools Day parody of President Obama's speech announcing a big expansion in offshore drilling, We received a reminder from an anonymous subscriber reminding us that Candidate Obama opposed basically the same plan when it was proposed by McCain and Palin as in "drill baby drill!" Here is a quote from candidate Obama's speech in Jacksonville, FL on June 8, 2008.


"This is a proposal that would only worsen our addiction to oil and put off needed investments in clean, renewable energy. It's not the kind of change that the American people are looking for."

If this is hard to believe, go the linked website and read or see a video of his speech in 2008. He blasts offshore drilling.


You may be interested in several related stories that illustrate the problems with offshore drilling: 

• The Diane Rehm show, April 1, 2010. One issue discussed is the need for additional refining capacity (currently at 98 % capacity); what east coast city will want another oil refinery?

• Local opposition to drilling, refining and transportation facilities is likely to be intense and to create bitter divides between opponents and supporters. Case in point: 

          Culver City challenges new oil drilling

A Texas company wants new wells in the Inglewood Oil Field, which lies along the city's    border and already has 1,463 active, idle and abandoned wells. By Louis Sahagun, April 3, 2010
See also yesterday's article on the poor safety record of oil refineries:  Study Shows US Refineries Have Bad Safety Record: Report shows US oil refineries have bad safety record as blast kills 4 in Washington state, 




By SETH BORENSTEIN AP Science Writer, 

WASHINGTON April 2, 2010 (AP)