Graham called the White House plan a "good first step" but added, "there is more that must be done to make this proposal meaningful and the game-changer we all want it to become."

"Among the areas we still need to address - encouraging states to allow exploration by sharing a portion of the revenue raised from oil and gas drilling, opening even more areas of the Eastern Gulf to exploration, the inclusion of viable drilling sites in the Atlantic and Pacific, and expanding the list of areas we inventory for possible reservoirs of oil and gas," Graham said. link

I do not pretend to understand this man or his way of thinking.

But I love this comment from a David Dayen post over at FDL:

2)  DanR March 31st, 2010 at 11:11 am

The President knows we cannot drill our way to energy independence

Reminds me of Kevin Baker's observation that Barack Obama, again and again-whether it's about war, terrorism, healthcare or the environment-tells us that the current system is broken and then proceeds to tell us that the system must be maintained.

This is what concerns me too. Each one of these deals that concedes it incorporates 'good ideas from republicans', when taken in the aggregate, create an erroneous and dangerous overarching philosophy that Republican ideas are good. And they're not.

Obama is no sell-out ... he never was a progressive, he never promised any policies that were one whit more progressive than they needed to be to win in a Democratic primary campaign, and he swung to the center-right as soon as the general election campaign started.

Its only the occasional rhetorical flourish combined with the preceding and offered hard right wing alternative that ever made him look "progressive by contrast".

Just as we can expect the White House to support whatever transnational corporate wealth agreement he can get away with, since he was always the most anti-fair-trade of the main contenders in the primary, since he was always the most pro-Big-Coal in the primary, we can expect him to go for the dirtiest energy policy he thinks he can get away with.

"We need comprehensive solutions for America's clean energy future -- and more offshore drilling in our oceans does not fit in that picture. Offshore drilling carries significant environmental risks without truly increasing our energy independence. There are many areas that are just too sensitive for offshore drilling, which threatens our oceans, sea life and coastal communities; including economic interests in these areas. America has better solutions than to drill in our pristine waters -- which needs more research and investigation -- and we should be pursuing these options.