Yes, a well can be drilled and brought into production in less than a year, but from a practical standpoint an oilfield takes decades, because to get the most oil from an oilfield it has to be mapped and a production plan needs to be developed, otherwise you risk a salt water incursion, which ruins the field and ends production, you could end up leaving over 80% of the recoverable oil in the ground that way.
Oil companies have drilled on less than 25% of the leases they have, so it's not lack of areas to explore that has set the rate of drilling at what it is, and leasing tracts offshore doesn't mean that you'll get drilling and production anytime soon, you still need an offshore platform, and plenty of exploratory drillng and the infrastructure to get the oil to market.
Oil companies have used their cash to increase dividends rather than to increase drilling, because that raises the stock price and that triggers the huge bonuses for management.
Why would management pour that money into production that is a decade off, when they can pay a dividend and reap the rewards cashing in their stock options immediately?

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“ The subjects of every state ought to contribute towards the support of the government, as nearly as possible, in proportion to their respective abilities; that is, in proportion to the revenue which they respectively enjoy under the protection of the state.”

Adam Smith , The Wealth of Nations 1776

"We have always known that heedless self-interest was bad morals; we know now that it is bad economics"
FDR's second Inaugural Address

Goober,

With all due respect, I think that your questions belong in one of the many energy policy threads. This thread is about McCain, and the last time you and I discussed him, you bowed out of rational discussion saying that your mind was already made up and the facts themselves were just "fluff." You quoted the standard arguments and sound bites, but you refused to get into matters of substance. More egregiously in my opinion, you felt free to question me ad nauseum about even the smallest details of McCain's voting record, etc., but you refused to add facts and data to support your own answers when those questions were redirected at you.

I'm passionate about the energy issue, and would be happy to explain the ins and outs of the research I've conducted, but not in this thread, and not according to the same ethics that your previous "debate" here took place. I'm interested in discussions - two way traffic - not banging my head against the wall with someone who's already made up his mind.

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The price of apathy towards public affairs is to be ruled by evil men.

~ Plato

I was just pointing out that when John McCain claims that offshore oil can solve the problem in short order, he just doesn't know what he's talking about.
OTOH, I have noticed a lot more people at the air pump, checking their tire pressure over the last few weeks when I fill up.
Someone is actually saving gas and reducing imports, already.

And I gave you a matter of substance, McCain had six months to pick a VP, he picked Sarah Palin, that decision alone shows that he's not making very good decisions.
How long did it take Katy Couric to make Palin look like a complete idiot?
In 90 minutes she destroyed Palin by asking the kinds of questions that she should have been able to answer with ease, yet McCain never got that deep in his vetting of the candidate, even though he had six months to do it in, and tons of staff to handle it.
That shows a flawed thought process that leads to disastrous decisions.
That wasn't a lesson he learned in his tender youth, that decision was made with the full benefit of experience that goes back to before WWII.
I wouldn't be comfortable with a president making decisions like that, especially one guided by a failed economic theory, and failed foreign policy theories, and unwilling to give the matter much thought or even to rely on other people to do the legwork, someone who just decides things on gut feel.
I'd rather have Obama making decisions using his brain, than McCain making decisions using his gut.

__________________
“ The subjects of every state ought to contribute towards the support of the government, as nearly as possible, in proportion to their respective abilities; that is, in proportion to the revenue which they respectively enjoy under the protection of the state.”

Adam Smith , The Wealth of Nations 1776

"We have always known that heedless self-interest was bad morals; we know now that it is bad economics"
FDR's second Inaugural Address

If we were in a playground and bullies were taking our lunch money, I think McCain's tactics might just work ... but there're no slides, jungle gyms and sandboxes --- there's just the real world, where inciting fights get you into more trouble.