Obama's turn on oil: It's long past time

The president rolled out some new rhetoric allowing expansion of domestic oil drilling and exploration, while also retaining his stance on ending oil company “subsidies,” which in reality are mostly tax breaks and incentives that are not unique to the oil industry. The devil is in the details when it comes to this president, so I’m reserving any hurrahs until those details are released.

But whatever the details of his new proposal, it remains a fact that he stood in the way of domestic drilling and exploration for years. It remains a fact that he knows his policies, at least as concerns electricity production, will cause energy rates to skyrocket, yet he pursues those policies anyway in the name of social engineering. His excuse as a candidate to oppose increasing domestic oil production was that it would take years to ramp up, which was true but no valid reason not to start, but we’re years down the road now and his and his party’s policies have kept the nation mired in dependence on foreign sources of oil as gas prices have reached toward record highs. So while it’s worth hoping that President Obama has finally seen the light, it’s worth doubting and it’s more than worth examining the fine print.