Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, now may be a proponent of oil drilling along the coastal U.S., but "we're not going to get offshore," Cramer said.
While "you really have to sit up and take notice" of McCain's new position on the issue, the Mad Money host said, the odds are against congressional approval of offshore drilling.
Investors looking for a drilling play or two would be better off focusing on dry land then. Nabors and Halliburton are two of Cramer's favorites. With natural-gas prices as high as $12, and the cost of discovery only $3, both companies are enjoying big margins.
Those high prices are also fueling the search for oil and gas in harder-to-reach places. The Marcellus shale, largely in Pennsylvania, and Haynesville shale in Alabama and Louisiana are now viable drilling spots for companies like Chesapeake because the hefty ROI makes the costs worth it.
"It now opens up the whole country," Cramer said of the high cost of energy. So "there is a silver lining" to sky-high prices because more much-needed reserves of oil and gas can be found.
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