Drilling offshore won't necessarily help U.S.

President Bush made a big deal of lifting the executive ban on offshore drilling — a ban his father put in place, by the way — saying it must be done to help reduce oil prices and America's dependence on foreign oil.
But offshore drilling wouldn't do any such thing. No law says that oil found there must stay in America. The oil companies can put it on the world market at prevailing prices, and it could just as easily end up in Chinese cars as our own.
Bush's lifting of the executive order is no favor to Americans; it's a favor to the oil companies. Our beaches risk getting mucked up in order to squeeze out very little oil that Americans might not even get to keep....