On a January afternoon in 1969, six miles off the coast of Santa Barbara, California, a "blowout" exploded below a Union Oil Company drilling platform, spewing crude oil from cracks in the Santa Barbara Channel floor.

It took almost two weeks to cap the leak and, before it was plugged, the oil spill had grown to more than 3 million gallons, spreading across 800 square miles of ocean and spoiling more than 35 miles of Southern California's coast.

Dead and injured sea animals and birds washed up along the beaches, covered in black goo. Images of the devastation, transmitted around the world, helped galvanize environmentalists and triggered establishment of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the passage of the U.S. Clean Air Act.

In the wake of this calamity, then U.S. President, Richard Nixon, a Republican and a California native, proffered his concern “for preserving the beauty and the natural resources that are so important to any kind of society that we want for the future. The Santa Barbara incident has touched the conscience of the American people." Offshore oil drilling was suspended off the coast of California for nearly 40 years.

In 2008, with rising oil and gas prices, unprecedented government deficits, two wars and increasing distress in the U.S. economy, another Republican President, George W. Bush announced he was lifting the presidential moratorium on offshore drilling. He also called on the U.S. Congress to lift its ban on offshore oil drilling.

This has surfaced as a hot-button issue in the presidential campaign as John McCain adopts the Bush position while Barack Obama opposes offshore drilling.

McCain had opposed offshore drilling in his unsuccessful run for the presidency in 2000. He continued in opposition until the Bush announcement. His switch in position has angered environmental groups he'd been wooing for years and annoyed Republican Governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger, who had endorsed McCain, but roundly criticizes the Arizona senator's newly adopted position on offshore drilling. This is an issue that divides voters as well as the two presidential candidates.

One has to wonder why McCain would reverse himself by calling for the lifting of offshore drilling restrictions. By remaining green McCain could have put some distance between himself and Bush. By going black, he puts himself shoulder to shoulder with the unpopular president. It would appear that McCain has concluded that voter anger about high fuel prices will trump the environment in today's economy.

He may be right. U.S. polls reveal that voters might be ready to endorse lifting the ban on offshore drilling. A Gallup poll in May showed that 57 percent of respondents now favor allowing oil drilling in U.S. coastal and wilderness areas now off-limits to oil exploration but significantly, there were partisan differences in support. Only 38 percent of Democrats agreed with lifting the ban while 80 percent of Republicans and 56 percent of independent voters agreed with lifting the ban.

Here in New Brunswick, our local newspapers have taken similar positions on the environment. Carbon reduction is considered less important than preservation of the economy. One attempts to frighten us by suggesting that higher electricity prices will scare industry out of the province.

They fail to mention the offsetting reduction in income tax rates could make carbon taxes more affordable in a rising price market.

Our prime minister continues to batter the Liberal plan for carbon taxes. He sees it as too complicated and calls the plan “incomprehensible”. This week, he dared the Liberal opposition to defeat his government and precipitate an election in which the proposed carbon tax would be the defining issue.

A friend of mine, who happens to be a tax accountant, supports the survey’s conclusion by saying “bring on carbon taxes and help people find carbon-free energy alternatives.” He’s a big advocate of heat pumps, geothermal energy and electric cars. He says higher prices are the only thing that will cause people to change their behaviour and points to the changes that are already occurring in consumer behaviour as a result of higher energy prices – smaller, more fuel-efficient car purchases, improved weather-proofing of homes, increased use of bicycles and public transit.

He’s convinced that if we don’t change the way we do things, we’ll end up like Beijing with air that is nearly unbreathable and an environment that will increasingly become intolerable.

If the carbon tax is indeed the ballot question in Canada, it will force Canadians to weigh their concern for the environment against the counter-claim of slowing economic growth, corporate layoffs and rising prices.

If Barak Obama continues to champion the environment and continues to grow in personal popularity, Mr. Dion may find it easier to sell his carbon-tax plan to Canadians. Stay tuned.

W.E. (Bill) Belliveau is a Shediac resident and Moncton business consultant. He can be contacted at bill.bellstrategic@nb.aibn.com Atlantic Insight is a published Blog inventory of opinion articles published weekly in New Brunswick's print media as written by W.E. (Bill) Belliveau, who is a resident of Shediac, New Brunswick, and small business owner, operating his Moncton-based marketing consultancy, Bell Strategic. He can be reached by e-mail at mailto:bill.bellstrategic@nb.aibn.com