I can't fathom this

Is there any reason not to allow oil companies to drill other than, how I see it, resentment politics.

If you aren't familiar with resentment politics, it's fairly simple: a certain policy is either supported or rejected, not because it will yield a more just society or a more successful society, but because it hurts people we don't like.

There is nothing in politics I hate more than resentment politics. Provoking strife between classes, genders, and races is an easy way to score political points, but it creates massive barriers to progress.

Oil drilling is one of them. The only argument I have heard against oil drilling has been that it will help oil companies.

True, some folks have argued that drilling won't "solve our energy problems", but that's not really an argument against drilling. Just because drilling won't "solve" all of our energy problems, doesn't mean it won't help.

Some folks have argued that "alternative energy" should be pursued, but our government isn't a position to choose either drilling or alternative energy, they can choose both: oil companies would foot the bill for drilling, taxpayers foot the bill for developing alternative energies because at this point they aren't productive or profitable.

Some folks have argued that our oil supply is only 3% of global supply... which still isn't an argument against drilling, and it doesn't really mean anything, because I've also heard that that 3% of global supply is enough to satisfy our oil needs for 100 years. I've heard the argument that our drilling is safe and won't spill, a preemptive attack against environmental arguments, but I've not actually heard anyone argue that drilling is environmentally unsound.

These are all arguments that we should pursue some other course, or that the benefits won't be worth the costs, but no one has found the time to point out what those "costs" are, and why we are to deem them as being too high. There's a good reason for that: the costs are very low to the American taxpayer.

Even the argument that speculation is the real cause behind high prices at the pump is not an argument AGAINST drilling, it is an argument for the government to take action against speculators IN ADDITION TO whatever is decided about drilling, which is really a totally separate issue. Personally, if SPECULATION is really the cause of the price increases, and that speculation has fluctuated greatly because of supply concerns about Middle Eastern Oil, then the mere ANNOUNCEMENT of the relaxation of the moratorium on oil exploration should make an immediate impact on the futures price of oil.

The ONLY argument I've heard AGAINST drilling is that it will help "Big Oil". It doesn't matter that what helps Big Oil also helps the American consumer, so long as any policy helps Big Oil in any way it will be wholeheartedly opposed: that is resentment politics.