Republicans Could Tap a Gusher of Support Off the California Coast

http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/07/republicans_could_tap_a_gusher.html

Over the years off shore drilling in order to solve the U.S.'s dependency on foreign oil has been greatly opposed. This article showed me the great changes that are being made in these views as oil prices go up. Petroleum Engineering has greatly enhanced. These companies have perfect their machines and manufactured spill free oil drillers. There have been no accounts of oil leaks or disasters in that area. Even during the with hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico the oil production platforms stood strong and no leakage occurred.
Today, over 40% of Californians support offshore drilling. and 47% of Americans want to advance towards a similar solution. Even those who hated the idea are switching sides. The big push in this situations is the nations rising oil prices, California being one of the highest. Californian society is being threatened and is greatly in debt offshore drilling is one way to help solve this problem economically.
Environmentalists are starting to change towards being more open to the idea of offshore drilling. They are starting to see ways to write contracts with oil companies that can greatly benefit both sides and create a fairly good deal for everyone. This development means that eventually everyone will be able to better understand the benefits of offshore drilling and most likely additionally be able to see its letdowns.
Much of this article was sorting through political views which took a long time because they were so strongly opinionated that it was hard to separate fact from argument and actually find the fact within the article.

Questions:

1. Which environmentalists are beginning to see benefits and what actions have been taken in accordance?

2. Why is it that when I find an argument for this side that it is always so politically involved, is there any viewpoints that are not defending or attacking in this subject matter, why or why not?

3. How would offshore drilling affect oil companies that got into it, would they make more money or less than they are currently?

4. If all of this information on benefits and no defects is so readily available then why is it still being opposed, are there still downfalls or is it stubbornness?