McCain's Enron connection..and how much oil is really under the U.S.

John McCain and his..cough..adviser Phil Gramm heart the Enron Loophole. This loophole is why the price of energy is so fucking high..not because there is any shortage of oil on the market or that we need to drill in ANWAR or any other sensitive areas as Bush pushed this morning in his press conference speechifying. From Bill Scher's article on TomPaine today:

President Bush's push to drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge -- where an estimated 10 billion barrels of oil lie -- would only reduce the price of crude oil per barrel by about 50 cents, 17 years from now, according to Bush's own Energy Department. My colleague Isaiah just pointed me to a new Department of Energy analysis, adjusting that estimate to 75 cents.

The price of crude oil per barrel has jumped 100 dollars in the Bush Era, leading prices at the pump to more than double. Shaving the crude oil price 75 cents by 2025 amounts to no savings at the gas station.

That's what we would get for ANWR's 10 billion barrels. What about the moratorium areas off continental America's coastlines?

McCain's speech today estimates that there 21 billion barrels in the moratorium areas. That seems a touch high. The Energy Department put it at 18 billion a few years ago. Popular Mechanics reports an estimate of 19 billion.

Regardless, it's about double of what's estimated in ANWR.

Just to put a fine point on it, lowering the price of crude oil per barrel by $1 is roughly equal to a reduction in price at the pump of 2.5 cents per gallon. So lifting all of the above moratoriums, lowering the price of crude by $2.25 per barrel, would lower the price at the pump by less than 6 cents by 2025.

Meaningless, after prices have skyrocketed more than $3 a gallon between Dec. 2001 and today.