Obama drilling "Shift" Really More Of A Gesture

TITUSVILLE, FL -- The Florida papers are full of stories this morning about Barack Obama's "shift" on off-shore oil drilling. In an interview yesterday, Obama said that he'd be willing to accept additional domestic oil exploration as part of a bipartisan compromise on energy reform.

This strikes me as less of a shift and more as a gesture of sorts to the reality that the major cap and trade legislation next year that Congress will mark up -- legislation that will be introduced regardless of who's president -- requires the participation of and compromise from the industry.

The oil industry has two cards, basically, in the negotiations. One: that windfall profits taxes would disincentivize further exploration somehow...  two: that, as the staple source of energy, oil companies ought to have more land/water to figure out where oil is and then tap those pools. Democrats are more likely to compromise on the second, rather than the first.

Note that Obama is still opposed to expanded drilling off the coasts of Florida.