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.

I think so. Finally! Some reasonable thinking. More.

You know, the willful ignorance that so many liberals show toward the idea of drilling absolutely befuddles me. Take Bob Herbert and his op/ed for the NY Times a few days ago.

As Senator Kerry and many others have pointed out, it would be nearly 10 years before any oil at all would be realized from new offshore leases. So your adorable 7- or 8-year-old would be just about 17 and clamoring for a license when this new oil started coming online.

Ok. Well, first off, they’re wrong. Drilling technology has come a long way since the 70’s, and it may take as little as 3 or 4 years to see some actual oil. But so what if it does take 10 years? If the Clinton Administration hadn’t blocked us from drilling 10 years ago, we wouldn’t be in this problem now. The shortsightedness is really quite astonishing. Not only would it drop prices sooner than 10 years from now, it would also provide for the Americans of 10 years in the future. Which will be us. So let’s think ahead, people.

Maximum capacity from these new leases wouldn’t be reached until 2030, when that 7- or 8-year-old is approaching 30, finished with college and graduate school, and very likely married with children.

And even then — after more than two decades and who knows how many graduations, weddings, funerals and family cars — even then, the amount of oil expected to come from these leases would have little or no effect on the price of gasoline at the pump.

Again, even if it takes that long, that alternative you’re offering is… what? Just wait it out? To have cars that run on Obama’s hopes and dreams by then? Please…

And to say that it will only have very little effect on gas prices ignores even our current situation with the deafest of ears. Like I’ve said, the only change in the last month has been the lifting of the Executive Order against offshore drilling. No new oil. Not even the lifting of the Congressional ban. Just a symbolic lifting of the Executive order. And oil barrels have dropped an incredible 23% from $147.27 to roughly $113.40. The average price at the pump dropped from $4.114 to $3.787. Almost $0.33!! To ignore this is engaging in a buffoonery of the highest order.

He then quotes the Energy Information Administration, a statistical agency that provides official data for the federal government. Given their dubious association, it’s not hard to believe they’re wrong:

“Because oil prices are determined on the international market … any impact on average wellhead prices is expected to be insignificant.”

Wrong. See above.

I wonder how [the chanting bikers at the McCain rally] would have responded if they had been told that lifting the offshore restrictions would risk serious environmental damage to the U.S. coastline over the next several decades while having no significant effect on the price of gasoline at the pump.

They’d know the second part was a lie given the prices they’ve seen with their own eyes at the pump lately, which would make them laugh all the more heartily at the first part. Seriously, how oblivious is Herbert? Has he not swiped the card himself at the pump lately?

Jimmy Carter, for all his faults, was on the case when it came to energy. He saw the challenge as “the moral equivalent of war,” and dared to ask the public to make sacrifices as part of a coordinated national effort.

Ah, yes, I’ve heard many stories about his daringness. I believe it only exacerbated the energy crisis, if I’m not mistaken. Obama’s energy policy seems eerily reminiscent of Carter’s plan. And as such, the Obama machine is hard at work trying to get people to rewrite the history of both the Carter and Reagan Administrations.

Former Vice President Al Gore has tried, more than any other public figure in recent years, to raise the consciousness of Americans by dramatically illustrating, not just the enormity of the energy challenge, but creative and practical ways of dealing with it.

I suppose no one has ever accused Gore of being a pragmatist. In his devising of creative ways he does seem to ignore the largest contributors to energy. Oil and coal. And nuclear. This new wave of radical environmentalism, backed by junk science, greatly exaggerates the current effectiveness of alternative forms of energy. Wind and solar are great, but even Captain McGreenie Al Gore can’t power his house using only alternative forms of energy. That’s why we need a multi-facted energy policy that encourages new technologies without first abandoning the only sources that currently produce abundant energy. That’s why McCain’s plan makes more sense. And why Obama is quickly headed in the same direction.

Now, while I know that correlation doesn’t necessarily equal causation, it’s pretty hard to argue that the President’s lifting of the executive ban on offshore drilling has nothing to do with the plummeting gas prices given the dates. The president lifted the order on July 14. Since July 16, oil in terms of price per barrel and per gallon at the pump have been in an unceasing downward spiral.

So despite what Pelosi and her out of touch party members think, it appears that it won’t take 10 years for the 2 cent reduction at the pump to come.