Key Dem: domestic drilling would reduce oil prices

OK, that's not exactly what U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said today on the floor of the Senate. According to a Capitol Hill staffer, Schumer said about Saudi Arabia:

If they produced half a million barrels more oil a day the price would come down a very significant amount and, at the same time, it would stop the speculation that keeps driving up the price of oil.

So if half a million barrels of Saudi oil would reduce prices a "significant" amount and would "stop" speculation that is blamed for higher prices, what would be the impact of two or three times that amount from the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge? Estimates peg the amount of oil in ANWR at somewhere between half a million and 1.5 million barrels every day. (And what about oil off the continental shelf?)

Never mind the fact that we have absolutely zero control over how much the Saudis pump from beneath their own sand, whereas we could start the process of drilling into our own soil tomorrow.

But, of course, that would take a decade before the oil started flowing, and we need action now! Unless the issue is global warming, in which case we'll happily bankrupt today's economy for a temperature reduction of half a percent over the next 20 years.

(Worth noting, however, is that this isn't the first time that Schumer has taken a two-faced approach to this issue.)