Reply #2: To gain the advantage, the SF Bay area (for instance) and other

[Blaze Diem]

protected areas along the coastline would have to be deemed unusable for human or aquatic life forms.
This would make existing environmental laws hich now prevent drilling, moot.

Was the Coast Guard ordered to look the other way when the recent tanker collision occurred?
Might be speculation on my part, (sorry) but if there is a barrier to oil drilling, Bushco seems to create a disaster that gives the green light to oil profiteering. i.e. IRAQ, & their attempts at Alaska.

They need to negate the laws that protect these areas first. That is their advantage in the politics of it all. Deem the protected area unuseable.