Free Republic

The federal government is taking steps that may open California's fabled coast to oil drilling in as few as three years, an action that could place dozens of platforms off the Sonoma, Mendocino and Humboldt coasts, and raises the specter of spills, air pollution and increased ship traffic into San Francisco Bay. Millions of acres of oil deposits, mapped in the 1980s when then-Interior Secretary James Watt and Energy Secretary Donald Hodel pushed for California exploration, lie a few miles from the forested North Coast and near the mouth of the Russian River, as well as off Malibu, Santa Monica...

Shell Oil has canceled its drilling and other exploration plans for next year in the Beaufort Sea while it focuses on court challenges to its offshore plan. A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled last month that federal regulators improperly granted Shell permission to drill in the Beaufort. The court ordered the Minerals Management Service to reconsider how exploratory drilling would affect wildlife and Inupiat Eskimo subsistence hunting and fishing. Shell said the agency completely analyzed the exploratory plan and correctly found that it would have minimal impact on marine mammals and subsistence activities. Shell...

Off the coast of Louisiana lie some of the world's most unusual reefs. We're not talking about coral or shell reefs, but the steel-legged kind that the oil companies constructed throughout the waters of the Gulf of Mexico. No doubt the engineers of these structures gave little thought at the time of their development on how an important food chain would result due to these rig installations. As a result of this, many fish gather under and near the leg structures of these steel reefs which are found in waters under ten feet to over a thousand feet in depth....

A video of fish swimming around underneath an oil rig. You can clearly see the piping and frameworks that comprises the underpinnings. You can see the rig in the background when they stand in their boats to show off the fish they caught. This video is useful for when the oil drilling debate comes back.

Shell Oil Company has set a world water depth record in drilling and completing a subsea well 9,356 feet (1.77 miles) below the water's surface in the Silvertip Field at the Perdido Development project, approximately 200 miles from Houston in the Gulf of Mexico. Russ Ford, Shell's technology vice president for the Americas said, "Pressing into ever deeper waters shows that the ultra deep is a new frontier for the critical resources to meet the world’s future energy needs. This achievement represents a leap forward in applying sophisticated technologies in rugged sea floor terrain with a harsh environment of very...

Where our line of sight hits the horizon is the distance from our boat to the horizon. A small boat first coming into view is assumed to be at that distance. In the picture above, the sailor cannot see the island's palm trees. If an object, such as a large ship or a palm tree on an island, sticks up well above the water, we can see it from a further distance. Here is how we can calculate how far we can see from a boat on the sea. First let's assume that we are sitting in the cockpit of...

Russian oil companies could soon begin searching for oil in deep Gulf of Mexico waters off Cuba, a top diplomat said just days before Russian President Dmitry Medvedev visits the island. Russian oil companies have "concrete projects" for drilling in Cuba's part of the gulf, said Mijail Kamynin, Russia's ambassador to Cuba, to the state-run business magazine Opciones.

On Wednesday, November 12, 2008, Minerals Management Service (MMS) Director Randall Luthi will announce a significant first step in the multi-step leasing process for offshore Virginia, a step that will involve full public involvement and begin the work for an environmental analysis. Luthi will discuss the announcement in a news media teleconference beginning at 11 a.m. Eastern Standard Time. Who: Randall Luthi, Director of the Minerals Management Service What: Announcement of a first step in leasing process for offshore Virginia When: Wednesday, November 12, 2008: 11 a.m. Eastern Standard Time; 10 a.m. Central Standard Time; 9 a.m. Mountain Standard Time;...

STAVANGER, Norway -- Industries world-wide are slashing costs and laying off workers. But one sector continues to recruit employees aggressively, dangling before them six-figure salaries, signing bonuses and job-training programs. Multinational oil companies are grappling with a shortage of specialized labor for offshore rigs that promises to get worse. Drillers plan to erect 180 new offshore rigs over the next three years -- adding to the current total of 640 -- spanning the globe from the Vietnamese coast and the Caspian Sea to the Gulf of Mexico and Brazil. Every new offshore drilling operation requires an average of 200 workers,...

Pollution or prosperity: Which will offshore drilling bring to South Carolina?By JIM FABER Published Sunday, October 12, 2008 It's a thorny question: Can a state economy based largely on tourism afford to have oil and natural gas drilling offshore? The answer, of course, depends on whom you ask. Some say it could threaten the natural beauty of the beaches that bring so many people to South Carolina and Hilton Head Island. Others say it could bring in thousands of high-paying jobs to a state struggling with a high unemployment rate and lessen dependence on foreign oil. **SNIP** THE CASE FOR...

Calls for greater education funding are a staple of Democratic campaigns. The latest is an advertisement by Senator Obama accusing Senator John McCain of "taking money away from public schools" to give to special interests. Yet in truth, when it comes to one issue that's hitting schools hard—rising energy costs—it’s Democrats who don't seem so concerned about schools’ stretched budgets. This summer, Republicans from the House of Representatives conducted a survey of teachers, administrators, and parents from around the country to get a sense of the impact that rising energy costs are having on the education sector. They received nearly...

The Department of the Interior’s Minerals Management Service (MMS) has proposed that oil and gas Lease Sale 208 for the Central Gulf of Mexico Planning Area be held March 18, 2009. The Notice of Availability of the Proposed Notice of Sale (PNOS) was published in the Federal Register on Friday, October 3. The proposed sale encompasses approximately 6,200 unleased blocks covering more than 33.5 million acres offshore Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. This area includes 5.8 million acres, known as the 181 South Area, that will be offered for lease for the first time since 1988. "What makes Sale 208 noteworthy...

Barack Obama and John McCain have been talking about finding new forms of energy, bringing down its cost and finding alternatives to oil. At the recent Clinton Global Initiative summit, both addressed how they would solve an energy "crisis" that has led to pain at the pump for Middle America. Unfortunately, offshore-drilling prospects remain entangled in red tape and legal challenges. A Gallup poll last month revealed that only 1 percent of McCain supporters and 2 percent of Obama supporters consider energy their most important issue. Yet, the cost of energy plays a significant role in the overall health of...

An important event occurred this week, though it went largely unnoticed because of the economic turmoil on Wall Street. On September 30 Congress allowed the 27-year-old ban on offshore oil drilling to expire. This is very good news for Americans and for our energy independence. Conversely, it should be bad news for the world's tyrants who profit enormously from our dependence upon their vast oil resources. One can hope that the expiration of this ban permanently ends the unnecessary and impractical Congressional regulation of our natural resources under the disingenuous guise of environmental protection. I should note here that we...

Twenty-seven years after it was first established, he Congressional ban on offshore drilling officially and quietly expired today. The ban was not a prohibition on drilling per se. Rather, it was a ban on appropriating money for the Interior Department to process of new drilling leases. With the beginning of the new fiscal year, that prohibition will end, once Congress passes a budget resolution that restores the funding. After years of opposition to increasing domestic supplies of energy, a full year of fighting House Republicans on the issue, and a summer of defending itself against a vocal Republican minority and...

Although Hurricane Ike wreaked damage to energy infrastructure and halted oil output, the storm's toll is seen as a partial victory in oil producers' battle with Mother Nature. Preliminary damage assessments indicate that Ike had a smaller impact than past major hurricanes - such as Katrina and Rita in 2005 - on crude oil and natural gas production in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico. While it's still too early to quantify the impact, analysts say the hit to oil companies' bottom lines isn't expected to be substantial, and Ike will turn out to be less costly than previous storms. Katrina...

Bob Tippee of the Oil and Gas Journal says it's certainly good news for the Gulf Coast economy. "It's good news in the long run because it means supply out in the future and it also means jobs and tax revenue out in the future." The ban was imposed after a spill off California in 1969. Houston democrat Gene Green says that's long in the past. "I don't have environmental concerns. I think, maybe, at one time 30 years ago and 20 years ago we did. But I think we've done so much better today in drilling off shore."

Amid the energy crisis, Democrats are losing the high ground on the environment to a GOP that is pushing oil drilling. As the election enters its endgame, Democrats and their environmental allies face a political challenge they could hardly have imagined just a few months ago. America's growing dependence on fossil fuels, once viewed as a Democratic trump card held alongside the Iraq war and the deflating economy, has become a lodestone instead. Republicans stole the energy issue from Democrats by proposing expanded drilling -- particularly lifting bans on offshore oil drilling -- to bring down gasoline prices. Whereas Barack...

It’s the Energy Stupid! by: Jesse Masai, September 29, 2008 Capitol Hill continues to reverberate with clashes of opinion over the best way forward on the energy crisis facing the country. Only last week, Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC), Chairman of the Senate Republican Committee, and Congressman Jeb Hensarling (R-TX), Chairman of the House Republican Study Committee, led an effort to open up domestic sources of oil by promoting the American Energy Freedom Day on October 1, 2008. It is estimated that 18 billion barrels of recoverable crude oil and more than 55 trillion cubic feet of natural gas are currently...

Offshore oil spigot still years awayBy: Associated Press Texarkana Gazette Published: 09/28/2008 WASHINGTON—The welcome sign is going out to oil and gas companies off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. A quarter-century ban on offshore exploration expires in this coming week, but don’t expect to see a chain of drilling platforms from the beaches anytime soon. It will take a couple of years, at least, before any oil or natural gas leases are issued, years more before any oil is found and perhaps a decade before any of it begins to flow to refineries. And what if Congress, after completing a...

Automakers gained $25 billion in taxpayer-subsidized loans and oil companies won elimination of a long-standing ban on drilling off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts as the Senate passed a sprawling spending bill Saturday. *snip* The administration won approval of the defense budget. Democrats wrested concessions from the White House on $23 billion for disaster-ravaged states, a doubling of low-income heating subsidies, and smaller spending items such as $24 million more for food shipments to the elderly.

WASHINGTON — Democrats have decided to allow a quarter-century ban on drilling for oil off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts to expire next week, conceding defeat in a months-long battle with the White House and Republicans set off by $4 a gallon gasoline prices this summer. House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey, D-Wis., told reporters Tuesday that a provision continuing the moratorium will be dropped this year from a stopgap spending bill to keep the government running after Congress recesses for the election. Republicans have made lifting the ban a key campaign issue after gasoline prices spiked this summer and...

WASHINGTON - Offshore oil drilling, which has dominated energy debates in the presidential campaign, is now coming to the Senate. The House late Tuesday approved on a 236-189 vote legislation that would open waters 50 miles off the Pacific and Atlantic coasts to oil and natural gas development — if the adjacent states agree to go along. The legislation now goes to the Senate, where Democratic leaders are expected to mold it to their liking in the next few days.

WASHINGTON — Democrats have decided to allow a quarter-century ban on drilling for oil off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts to expire next week, conceding defeat in a months-long battle with the White House and Republicans set off by $4 a gallon gasoline prices this summer. House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey, D-Wis., told reporters Tuesday that a provision continuing the moratorium will be dropped this year from a stopgap spending bill to keep the government running after Congress recesses for the election. Republicans have made lifting the ban a key campaign issue after gasoline prices spiked this summer and...

Millions of acres may be opened for offshore drilling after the House and Senate succumbed to a White House veto threat and agreed to lift a decades-old congressional moratorium. The ban on offshore drilling is typically included in annual spending bills or continuing resolutions, but this year lawmakers agreed to let it expire on Oct. 1, House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey (D-Wis.) announced Tuesday night. Obey announced an agreement on a continuing resolution (CR) to keep the government funded through March 6, which he said he expects the Senate and White House to agree to. “I wouldn’t be here...

WASHINGTON - House Democrats will allow a quarter-century ban on drilling for oil off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts to expire next week. Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey is telling reporters that language continuing the moratorium will be omitted this year from a spending bill to keep the government in operating funds after Congress recesses for the election.

More than two-thirds of North Carolina residents support offshore oil drilling, according to a poll conducted by Elon University. About 43 percent of the survey participants say they believe offshore drilling will reduce gas prices in five years or less, though experts say any such impact would be at least 10 years away. And 79 percent say the oil and gas should only be used domestically. The poll also asked about economic conditions. Two-thirds of respondents disapproved of President George W. Bush’s handling of the economy. Meanwhile, respondents were divided on how the N.C. economy will perform in the next...

FOR THE RECORD “[T]he House of Representatives approved a bill to allow offshore oil drilling, but nearly all the Republicans voted against it... It isn’t a drilling bill, it’s an anti-drilling bill. If it becomes law, nearly all the oil and gas in the Outer Continental Shelf would be off-limits forever... This bill permanently bans all drilling within 50 miles of the US coast, which just happens to be where most of the recoverable oil and gas reserves are. It permits drilling between 50 and 100 miles out only if the adjoining states agree - which they won’t, since the...

House Democrats are bypassing renewal of the offshore oil drilling ban by including the entire Pelosi “drill nothing” energy bill in a draft of a Continuing Resolution. HUMAN EVENTS obtained a copy of the most recent House draft CR this morning. The Pelosi bill, HR 6899, fails to open more than a miniscule part of the available offshore drilling areas and -- even worse -- it establishes permanent bans on development of most other domestic energy sources (natural gas, oil shale, etc.) and does nothing to develop nuclear power. It passed the House earlier this month and is now languishing...

Q: Says here the House of Representatives approved a bill to allow offshore oil drilling, but nearly all the Republicans voted against it. Weren't Republicans the ones chanting "Drill, baby, drill!" at their convention last month? A: Yep. That's why they voted against this bill. It isn't a drilling bill, it's an anti-drilling bill. If it becomes law, nearly all the oil and gas in the Outer Continental Shelf would be off-limits forever. Q: Huh? The story says the bill "would allow offshore drilling as close as 50 miles from the Atlantic and Pacific coasts." It quotes House Speaker Nancy...

A St. Petersburg Times-Bay News 9 exclusive statewide poll shows more Floridians support offshore oil drilling in times of skyrocketing gas prices. According to the poll, a little more than fifty percent support oil drilling closer than 125 miles from the Florida coast. In Tampa this week, Republican presidential nominee John McCain got a lot of cheers when he talked about drilling off shore and, not suprisingly, the polls showed most Republicans support the idea while most Democrats oppose it.

A bipartisan group of senators who sought a compromise in the rancorous energy debate won't introduce their bill before lawmakers adjourn for the elections, several Senate aides said Thursday.Instead, the so-called Gang of 20 will offer a statement of principals outlining their agreement on a host of divisive issues, including expanded offshore drilling. They plan to offer legislation once the political season has ended, according to an aide to a Democrat involved in the discussions. The aide said that the election-year environment has poisoned the atmosphere and hampered the chances of passing a bill on such a controversial campaign topic....

WASHINGTON (AP) -- At least 49 offshore oil platforms, all with production of less than 1,000 barrels a day, were destroyed by Hurricane Ike as it raced across the Gulf of Mexico, and some may not be rebuilt, the Interior Department said Thursday. It said in the latest hurricane damage assessment that the platforms altogether accounted for 13,000 barrels of oil and 84 million cubic feet of natural gas a day. There are more than 3,800 production platforms in the Gulf producing 1.3 million barrels of oil and 7 billion cubic feet of gas each day. Most remain shut down.

For at least at least a year, Americans struggling to pay record gasoline, heating oil and natural-gas prices have begged Congress to permit energy exploration off the Atlantic, Pacific and Gulf coasts, where 80 percent of the nation's known energy reserves sit just waiting to be tapped. But every time Congress had a chance to lift its moratorium on offshore drilling, Democrats and liberal Republicans told consumers to stop their whining. But with the public now solidly behind more drilling and with the congressional elections just seven weeks off, House Democrats found themselves between a rock — voters — and...

The sudden pro-drilling makeover of the Pelosi Democrats has always had an air -- a gale, really -- of election-year convenience, and the House proved it Tuesday by passing an energy bill that would put any bunko man to shame. This confidence trick won't expand domestic oil-and-gas supplies even a bit. The ruse began late Monday night, when Speaker Nancy Pelosi released a 290-page bill and then waved it through less than 24 hours later, 236-189. "Closed" rules prohibited the GOP from offering alternatives. The real game was to give vulnerable Democrats political cover by letting them vote for more...

If the Dhims do decide to adjourn without any legislation, will it not be a sign of complete capitulation on energy? Moreover, why are the dims so desperate to get out of town? Can it be a sign that they must return home to campaign? I ask you to do a bit of anecdotal research on your local congressional/senatorial races and be observant of which congress critters actually utilize their respective party's presidential ticket as an element of their campaign. I think the findings maybe illuminating, especially in so-called blue states where BhusseinO has such supposed insurmountable odds. Pardon my...

Republicans tore into the Democrats’ sham “energy” bill yesterday at a Capitol Hill rally that drew several members of both houses, including Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.), Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas), and Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.). “This wasn’t a bipartisan bill, this wasn’t a compromise bill. This was a jam-it-down-your-throat bill on the part of the Democrats,” Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) said. “I was on the floor of the house when the bill actually made it to the floor -- I was arguing at night and it came out. There was less than an hour’s notice for any Republican to even...

Democrats in the U.S. House want you to think that they support expanded drilling for oil and natural gas. They don't. Their vote on Tuesday proved it. New Hampshire Reps. Carol Shea-Porter and Paul Hodes voted along with the rest of Speaker Nancy Pelosi's poodle army for what they claim is a comprehensive energy bill that responsibly expands domestic drilling off our coasts. In the Atlantic and Pacific, the bill allows drilling from 100 to 200 miles offshore. It allows drilling from 50 to 100 miles offshore with state approval. The eastern Gulf of Mexico would remain off limits. Click...

How lame is the energy bill that Speaker Nancy Pelosi had her House Democrats pass through the House on Tuesday? Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu said before the vote that Pelosi's handiwork would be "dead on arrival" in the Senate. This from a Democrat who's up for re-election in an oil-and-gas state that would seem to gain from the bill's much-ballyhooed expansion of offshore drilling? What gives? For starters, Landrieu knows that the limited drilling the House leadership allows in principle -- it opens up waters 50 miles from shore with state approval -- is made next to impossible in practice....

AVON, N.J. (AP) — With oil and gas drilling heating up as an issue in the presidential race, environmentalists and the governor reiterated their opposition to tapping reserves off the state's coast, saying it would endanger the environment and the tourism industry on which New Jersey is so dependent.

When Arizona Sen. John McCain accepted the Republican nomination for president, he vowed to cut America's reliance on foreign oil by opening up the nation's Atlantic and Pacific coasts to drilling—drawing cheers from GOP delegates on hand for his party's national convention. "We will drill new oil wells offshore, and we'll drill them now," McCain pledged to his faithful, who gushed with enthusiastic chants of "drill, baby, drill!" The ultimate goal, the candidate said: to "stop sending $700 billion a year (for oil) to countries that don't like us very much." No one disputes that a lot of oil lies...

It took 4.2 million gallons of oil spewing from a blowout at a rig in the Santa Barbara Channel 40 years ago to ignite the modern conservation movement, trigger new environmental protections and lead to a moratorium on new offshore oil drilling. But the high price of a gallon of gasoline is fueling a change in attitude. Recent national polls indicate that seven out of 10 people support new drilling offshore along the federal outer continental shelf, which extends from three to 200 miles beyond the shore. If costly new exploration in those areas is allowed, oil from those fields...

The House, on a 236-189 vote, on Tuesday approved a bill to allow oil drilling off the nation's Atlantic and Pacific coasts if states agree — but only 50 or more miles out. Republicans called the bill a ruse, saying that's well beyond where most of the estimated 18 billion barrels of oil is located. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the measure marked "a new direction in energy policy" because of its emphasis on alternative energy. The White House threatened a veto, saying the bill doesn't go far enough to generate new domestic supplies of oil and natural gas. The...

Nancy Pelosi’s House of Representatives yesterday passed on a party line vote a drilling bill that effectively allows no drilling. She hates drilling, and this bill was solely an attempt to avoid becoming the Former Speaker of the House. The Senate bills aren’t any better. Wherever the House bill would allow limited drilling, say in the eastern Gulf of Mexico, the Senate bill would forbid it. The real story is that the Republicans know they are on the winning side of this issue and if they can kill this legislation, the moratorium will expire on September 30, and drilling can...

FINAL VOTE RESULTS FOR ROLL CALL 599(Democrats in roman; Republicans in italic; Independents underlined)       H R 6899      RECORDED VOTE      16-Sep-2008      10:04 PM      QUESTION:  On Passage      BILL TITLE: Comprehensive American Energy Security and Consumer Protection Act Ayes Noes PRES NV Democratic 221 13   1 Republican 15 176   8 Independent         TOTALS 236 189   9 ---- AYES    236 --- AbercrombieAckermanAllenAltmireAndrewsArcuriBacaBairdBaldwinBeanBecerraBerkleyBermanBerryBishop (GA)Bishop (NY)BlumenauerBorenBoswellBoucherBoyd (FL)Boyda (KS)Brady (PA)Braley (IA)Brown, CorrineBuchananButterfieldCapuanoCardozaCarnahanCarneyCarsonCastleCastorChandlerChildersClarkeClayCleaverClyburnCohenConyersCooperCostaCostelloCourtneyCramerCrowleyCuellarCummingsDavis (AL)Davis (CA)Davis (IL)Davis, LincolnDeFazioDeGetteDelahuntDeLauroDicksDingellDoggettDonnellyDoyleEdwards (MD)Edwards (TX)EllisonEllsworthEmanuelEngelEshooEtheridgeFattahFosterFrank (MA)GiffordsGilchrestGillibrandGonzalezGordon Green, AlGreen, GeneGrijalvaGutierrezHall (NY)HareHarmanHastings (FL)HayesHerseth SandlinHigginsHillHincheyHinojosaHironoHodesHoldenHondaHooleyHoyerInglis (SC)InsleeIsraelJackson (IL)Jackson-Lee (TX)JeffersonJohnson (GA)Johnson, E. B.Jones (NC)KagenKanjorskiKapturKennedyKildeeKilpatrickKindKirkKlein (FL)KnollenbergKucinichLaHoodLangevinLarsen (WA)Larson (CT)LeeLevinLewis (GA)LipinskiLoBiondoLoebsackLofgren, ZoeLoweyLynchMahoney (FL)Maloney (NY)MarkeyMathesonMatsuiMcCarthy (NY)McCollum (MN)McDermottMcGovernMcIntyreMcNerneyMcNultyMeek (FL)Meeks (NY)MelanconMichaudMiller (NC)Miller, GeorgeMitchellMollohanMoore (KS)Moore (WI)Moran (VA)Murphy (CT)Murphy,...

"It's a hoax on the American people. This is intended for one reason . . . so the Democrats can say we voted on energy." - House GOP leader John Boehner of Ohio, speaking yesterday in opposition to a bill meant to allow offshore oil drilling - but mostly beyond where the bulk of the estimated 18 billion barrels of recoverable oil is to be found

House passes bill allowing offshore drilling Tue Sep 16, 2008 10:10pm EDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The House of Representatives passed legislation on Tuesday lifting a longstanding congressional moratorium on offshore drilling. The extensive energy package introduced by Democrats would give states the option to allow drilling between 50 and 100 miles off their shores. Areas more than 100 miles from the coast would be completely open to oil exploration and drilling.

Press Releases Contact: Brendan Daly/Nadeam Elshami 202-226-7616 For Immediate Release 09/16/2008 Pelosi: ‘It’s Time for an Oil Change in America and the Energy Bill Represents That’ Washington, D.C. – Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Democratic leaders held a news conference today to discuss the comprehensive energy bill on the House floor today. The House is expected to vote on the bill tonight. Below are the Speaker’s opening remarks: “Good afternoon, my apologies for keeping you waiting in this warm room. I was getting the latest update from Secretary Paulson as to the state of our financial institutions. “We’re here today...

Durbin voices doubt on extending drilling ban By Manu Raju Posted: 09/16/08 02:58 PM [ET] Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) conceded Tuesday that Democrats might not be able to extend the nearly three-decade-old ban on offshore drilling when Congress takes up spending legislation this month. Under election-year pressures from Republicans over rising gas prices, Democrats have dropped their resistance to new offshore drilling on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. And Democratic leaders in both chambers seem willing to concede that they lack the support to add the drilling ban to a continuing resolution that will keep the government operating...

Andrea Mitchell today stated that "all of us" originally thought John McCain had made a political mistake when he changed positions and came out of in favor of expanded oil drilling. On her 1 PM EDT MSBNC show today, Mitchell was chatting with former Clinton press secretary Dee Dee Myers and Republican strategist Doug McKinnon . The subject was the just-announced Dem energy plan, that makes some limited provision for expanded offshore drilling. Mitchell made no bones of the fact that the politics now favor the advocates of expanded drilling, and that Dems were caught off guard. ANDREA MITCHELL: Dee...