John McCain's Stance on Offshore Drilling

            With the election looming and only a short time for the candidates to make themselves marketable to independent voters, questions are starting to turn to the environment. Offshore drilling, in particular, has become issue as voters seem more concerned with the lightening of their pocket books. The way each candidate addresses the oil question will be vitally important to his campaign and how he handles the rising oil prices will ultimately characterize his presidency, if elected. .
             John McCain has an interesting stance on offshore drilling. It's interesting because he has, for one reason or another, changed his outlook on the issue. For the longest time, McCain was opposed to any idea that purported drilling just off the coast of the United States. His concerns were well warranted, as there was no pressing need for the United States to expand their oil supply during the time. Now, things have changed and McCain seems to be onboard with those changes. .
             During the current campaign he has been a true proponent of offshore drilling, lending his full and unrelenting support to the idea of opening up waters just off the Atlantic coast. According to a Larry West article at About.com, McCain is "in favor of reopening U.S. coastal waters to offshore oil drilling, claiming that offshore drilling will help American families by lowering gasoline and food prices" (West). .
             McCain is interesting in that he doesn't believe that drilling alone will be enough to fully pull the United States out of its current oil problems. His plan, as has been outlined numerous times during the campaign would call for not only offshore drilling, but a full comprehensive energy plan that focused on finding new, renewable forms of energy. In his article, West goes on to say, "McCain advocates offshore drilling not as a complete energy solution, but as one component of an "all of the above" strategy that would include increased conservation, alternative energy sources such as wind, solar and biofuels, and more traditional sources such as coal and nuclear energy" (West).