That's My Congress:

Offshore Drilling Sinks Tennessee Republican Davis
Posted on August 8 2008 by Congress Watcher

Incumbent Congressman David Davis loved getting campaign checks from big oil companies – right up until last night, when he discovered that he had lost the Republicans primary.

David Davis supported offshore drilling, but his Republican challenger ran a campaign criticizing offshore drilling for crude oil. The campaign against offshore drilling won – and among conservative Southern Republican voters.

If I were a Republican in the House of Representatives right now, I would reconsider pushing the idea of offshore drilling. The American people don’t seem to be as gullible as big oil thinks we are.

Consider the issue, and it’s plain to see why. Expanding offshore drilling wouldn’t bring a drop of oil to the marketplace for years and years, and even then, the amount of oil would be so tiny that it could only bring gasoline prices down by a few pennies per gallon.

At the same time, all that offshore oil drilling would release heavy metals like lead, mercury and cadmium into the water, and the risk of oil spills fouling America’s beaches would skyrocket. At the same time, America’s fossil fuel economy would become even more vulnerable to hurricanes than before.

Offshore drilling is a stupid idea. Even a Republican voter can see that.