McCain: Drill Offshore US For Oil

Senator John McCain wants the federal moratorium on offshore oil and gas drilling lifted, saying it would ''be very helpful in the short term resolving our energy crisis.''

His comments yesterday might set some conservationists on edge, as did his support for a plan to cut the federal tax on gas this summer (it would have saved me about $20 overall, I figured out). Here's a story previewing McCain's more extensive energy plan, which he is unveiling today.

Some groups, such as Robbie Diamond's Securing America's Future Energy, also support some offshore drilling as just one step, a Band-Aid even, at weaning America's dependence on foreign oil. In a recent op-ed in the Globe, Diamond and Harvard professor Graham Allison outlined several other options now to avert even bigger energy shocks:

--Reducing demand through fuel-economy and other standards
--Increasing the production and deployment of alternatives
--Looking at other methods of powering our transportation sector (like electricity)
--Working in concert with other major consumers to increase strategic reserves.

The current ban on offshore drilling covers an estimated 80 percent of US coastal waters. The Senate last month rejected a GOP energy plan, 56 to 42, that included a provision similar to McCain's proposal.

James Hansen, the NASA climatologist credited with providing compelling data on global warming, told a Boston-area audience earlier this month that the energy debate takes as a given that we'll exhaust every bit of fossil fuels in the ground first before switching seriously to alternatives.

He then asked the crowd what I call the Maxwell House question: Why should we take every last drop?