And I wonder why Americans are dropping out of politics? Hmm? Could it be that even the new heights of cynicism our youth are achieving today aren't enough to cope with "business as usual?"

Even the politicians I like make me physically ill every now and then. I can't say how much I'd love to see real campaign finance reform and more effective term limits implemented, but I imagine that there would be actual dancing in the streets involved.

Vote for short term corporate profits! Vote for a politician!

Hello Mr. Romm

I just heard a report that oil companies already have access to 68 million acres of Federal land that they are not extracting oil from. They have the leases and are free to explore and drill to their heart's -- or whatever functions as a heart -- content.

Is this true?

If so, why are they demanding access to additional areas? Or is it just the politicians demanding access? Are oil companies even interested in drilling for oil in the ANWR or coastal areas currently closed? What's going on? Why isn't McCain calling on oil companies, in the interest of national security, to start extracting oil where they are already permitted to?

I don't know the exact acreage offhand, but they have long held a large # of leases that they do not and cannot currently drill (they lack the machinery and engineers to do so).

The main reasons they're still in such a hyper scavenger hunt to hoard ever more leases, and why the Bush admin is so eager to enable them, are:

1.Many of these lands were under consideration for Wilderness designation. Leasing them for drilling prevents this, perhaps permanently, even if no wells are drilled.

2.Since North American natural gas has peaked, they have an incentive to monopolize the leases but not drill them, to ensure lower supply.

3.I've read that stockpiled leases can be used in various accounting tricks, letting them count speculative alleged future profits as real assets, which boosts their projected earnings.

4.For the Bush admin, simply alienating public property at fire sale prices is in itself a value. Even if no drilling takes place, this de facto privatization is still considered ideologically worth doing.