McCain's Offshore Drilling Story is Full of Spills

GOP Presidential candidate John McCain has been going around touting the idea of repealing the law against offshore drilling as a way of helping America's energy crisis and relieving our dependence on foreign oil.

In response to critics who say offshore drilling isn't environmentally sound policy, Bush III says that during Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, "little or no spillage took place" proving that offshore drilling's newer technologies make concerns a thing of the past.

Hold on there, buster. As Salon.com reports, 174 spills totaling about 3/4 million gallons of crude were reported during those two storms. Now that's not a huge amount of oil, to be sure, but any inadvertent spillage (can there be "advertent" spillage?) is too much weighed against the loss of wildlife, damage to beaches and waterfront homes, etc.

Lest you think, however, that I believe McCain is just as useless as the man he would follow into the White House, I think his idea of a $300 million prize for the developer of the battery technology that would led to the manufacture and sale of all-electric vehicles is a darned good one. Sure, it has some holes and the question of how you pay for it has to be answered, but that's true of both candidates' plans pre-election. The idea shows McCain is capable of having a good and at least seemingly original idea about major issues.