Wash Post: Money from oil industry gushed after McCain backed offshore drilling

"Campaign contributions from oil industry executives to Sen. John McCain rose dramatically in the last half of June, after the senator from Arizona made a high-profile split with environmentalists and reversed his opposition to the federal ban on offshore drilling," the Washington Post reports.

"Oil and gas industry executives and employees donated $1.1 million to McCain last month -- three-quarters of which came after his June 16 speech calling for an end to the ban -- compared with $116,000 in March, $283,000 in April and $208,000 in May."

McCain in June kicked up a controversy by saying he now favors allowing states -- like Florida -- to decide whether to lift the ban on offshore drilling. Enviros and Democrats say the solution to high gas prices can't be found through drilling.

Comments

[Tommya]

Just wondering: how are Enviros now experts on the economy? And why are Democrats legislating energy and the economy according to what the Enviros say?!?

The reason why gas prices are so high is because the Enviros run the energy policy in our country.

And the scary thing is the Democrats are using the Enviros to legislate how we live our lives. The Enviros are being given the authority to tell us what to eat, drive, how much electricity to use, what to wear, what kind of grocery bags we can and cannot use, etc.

We're headed for a totalitarian government run by the Democrat/Enviro partnership, and people don't even realize it.

[cubanito47]

The only way McCain can begin to approach Obama's fund raising from small donors is by selling out to special business.
And this is the same McCain that would not take money from lobbists.
Shame, shame, McCain!
You will lose the election and the respect of many other citizens.

[dlu]

Politics is a dirty game. It is such a shame to leave the running of the country to Politicians. Neither side has a clue.

[Daredevil]

One of the few things McCain is 100% right. If he would change his stance on illegal aliens I might think of voting him for President.

[Observer]

McCain has a strong record as an environmentalist and I'm sure that once elected he will reverse himself and return to his opposition to offshore drilling. What bothers me is his efforts to provide amnesty for those who are not legally in this country.

[guglealo]

Remember Enron?

When they wanted to track its connections to Vice president Cheney, Democrats desisted... Have you ever wondered why?

It's simple... Their biggest contributions in 2000 went to no other than Mr. Gore!

Enron had influenced Clinton and Gore long before Bush even hinted he was running for President!

Anyway, what's the purpose of this article? To bash McCain?

[Virgilio Sklar]

All the arguments about drilling helping our economic situation or lowering the cost of gasoline are bogus. Oil companies already have many permits to drill in areas they are not now currently drilling. They should be asked to drill and explore in those areas before drilling offshore. What is more, the offshore drilling will take years to explore and to develop. That will not have an impact on gas prices for over a decade, and will thus not help the economy.

If our energy policy were truly dictated by environmentalists (which it is not), then we would place much more emphasis on making solar energy more economically feasible, on developing more wind farms, on subsidizing sugar ethanol (not corn), and on developing other forms of energy such as wave energy harvesting. Tax incentives for these type of companies make sense. John McCain has it wrong. Very wrong. Do not be fooled by his arguments. The drilling argument may appeal to naive common-sense, but from a policy perspective, it stinks.

[Jose]

Of course that's the purpose of this article guglealo. The Miami Herald and most of the media is putting out this kind of cra*p and it's none-stop. ALL news stories they post about Obama are positive and all McCain stories they post are negative.

It's so incredibly obvious, how liberal and how BIAS the herald is. We have a huge failure going on in the media and its due to organizations like the New York Times and the Herald that are quickly driving away folks looking for UNbias reporting. Most of the media has simply become unbearable. It's no wonder organizations like the NewYork Times continues to post losses. Total loss of credibility! They are worthless!