Conservative bloggers, various GOP members of the Illinois congressional delegation, President Bush, and John McCain have all called for more oil drilling to lower gas prices in the short-term. We did our best to beat back this shaky contention, but alas, we're only bloggers. There has to be some expert out there who can prove us wrong, right?
Not quite. According to The Huffington Post's Sam Stein, it was impossible to find any economist -- from the left or right -- willing to back the proposition that offshore drilling could have a short-term impact on the market dynamics:
The Huffington Post took on the task of finding an expert who thought that Americans would, within the next decade, receive relief at the pump from McCain's plan. Querying the entire scope of the ideological spectrum -- and putting aside the debate over whether or not offshore drilling was sensible policy -- the consensus seemed to be that if the presumptive GOP nominee was persuading voters that he could help decrease their gas bill, he was either living in a political fantasy or being disingenuous.
Maybe Rep. Mark Kirk read Stein's piece. After calling for more drilling off the coast of Cuba, he and Rep. Judy Biggert released an energy proposal yesterday that doesn't include a single mention of additional drilling.
(h/t David Roberts)
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