continuedpolitical nonsense about energy

MSNBC reported today that President Bush has called for increased drilling for oil and gas. Pres. Bush may have other faults, but a lack of knowledge about the oil and gas business is not one of them. He knows that new drilling will not impact crude oil and natural gas supplies quickly. His motive, no doubt, is to try and further dampen speculation in futures trading by raising the posssibility of increased production (most traders don't understand how long it takes to get new production on line and through the refining process). On the other hand, Democratic leaders responded by saying that oil companies already own thousands of acres which have not been drilled and , therefore , don't need any additional acreage made available. Of course oil companies own thousands of acres of lease rights which have not been drilled--that's because geological testing, as well as test wells, did not indicate economically viable opportunities, other wise they would certainly have begun exploration/drilling operations on this acreage. Do these Congressional Demos really think there is commercial oil reserves under every acre of drilling rights owned? How naive, or is this just another case of partisan politics?