I’m rarely shocked by much that I read in the news anymore.

 Not by the news out of Switzerland last week of a successful “atom-smashing” test of the enormous Hadron Collider.

Not by the tragic daily accounts of bloodshed and conflict on the frontlines in Afghanistan.

KANN

But the news of President Barack Obama’s proposed plan to open previously protected tracts of the Atlantic coast and the Gulf of Mexico to offshore drilling and oil exploration made me do a double-take.

Maybe Obama’s proposition shouldn’t have come as such a shocker.

Like a moth unable to resist the intoxicating glow of a lit streetlamp, politicians have a habit of heading towards the safety of the middle ground when it comes to “hot-button” issues like energy policy .

But just days removed from his unprecedented health care reform bill, undoubtedly the biggest example of “change” we’ve seen from the President, Obama’s drilling proposition is anything but progressive. 

The presumed negative environmental impact is not what bothers me the most about Obama’s proposal.

Nor is it the unabashed appeasement of oil industry interests in the name of “job creation” and “energy independence” that really irks me.

It’s the message that Obama’s decree sent loud and clear to the American public — that without some form of apocalyptic environmental meltdown, an American president will not be able to gather the political support to tackle our country and world’s energy crises via clean, alternative energy.

It’s a symbolic throwing-in of the towel.

Obama looked out of his Oval Office window when drafting this proposition and saw the millions of cars and buses that drive our nasty oil addiction. He saw the millions of Americans clamoring for jobs and lower gas prices.

And as if he were staring into the eyes of a weary junkie, begging desperately for cash for his next dose, Obama felt it simpler to flip a few coins his way, rather than scoop the addict up off the street to try to kick the habit for good. 

Obama’s drilling proposal is a short term solution, but not the comprehensive rehabilitation program our country needs.

Sure, we may find oil deep in the Atlantic after all is said and done. And sure, utilizing these domestic reserves will likely help to drive down oil prices and create jobs.

But what happens when that oil is gone? And what happens when the relative political stability that has been enjoyed by our biggest oil suppliers like Saudi Arabia ends?

Like the junkie on the corner, we’ll be back asking where to find more.

— Drew Kann is a senior from Atlanta majoring in magazines. He is a sportswriter for The Red & Black