Editorial: Oil drilling expedience

High gasoline prices bring to mind Mark Twain's statement about the weather: Everyone talks about it, but no one ever does anything about it.

The one difference is that the people who tend to do most of the talking about the cost of a barrel of oil are politicians, and no matter how much they would like to, they really can't do anything to bring prices down much in the short term. They can, however, make them go up.

In that light, we were pleased that President Barack Obama last week did not spend too much time pushing the blame-big-oil line that politicians hope will be a big crowd pleaser. He did talk again about removing tax subsidies to oil companies, but he knows such a thing would never survive the Republican House, just as he couldn't get it past a Democratically controlled Congress during the first two years of his term.

He also must know, deep down, that it makes little sense to have spent tens of billions of taxpayer dollars to prop up failing auto giants GM and Chrysler in the hopes that they can again produce cars the American public wants, while at the same time punishing the producers of the oil and gas those cars need by raising taxes.

But the main thrust of his weekly radio address about the nation's energy needs was that he intends to speed up the domestic production of oil. This includes the process for extracting oil from the Alaska National Petroleum Reserve (but not from ANWR — the wildlife reserve thought to contain a great deal of oil). He also wants to increase incentives to drill on leases already granted, and to extend leases in the Gulf of Mexico. We wish his actions would match his rhetoric.

This follows a general strategy Obama has long outlined to reduce the nation's reliance on foreign oil. He also wants to encourage the development of alternative fuels. That's another popular idea with little real immediate substance. While those alternatives are slowly ripening, the nation must continue trying to provide its own supplies of oil. A good chunk of foreign oil purchases in this country end up enriching the nation's enemies in various parts of the world.

Obama says he wants to do all this with an eye toward protecting the environment. That's important, of course, but his plans for expanding domestic production don't go far enough. The House recently passed several bills to open drilling off coastal areas. It would be nice to see some bipartisan support for such a measure — or at least a sense of urgency in Washington for action to match the words.

While there is no short-term strategy for reducing prices at the pump (although substantive movement in that direction might affect oil futures), allowing more leases for drilling can affect prices in coming years.

The sooner the process to allow this begins, the better. The president wants to establish a commission to make sure it's all done safely and responsibly. That sounds like more bureaucracy. Regulatory agencies already have the power to take care of those concerns. Let the process to allow more drilling begin, and let it begin soon.