Even though actual oil will not flow for years unless there is an urgency placed on the orders, the speculators will drive the price down just like the price is being driven up by no drilling prospects.
Even at that, you have to start to accomplish something before you can have success. Better to start late than to not start at all.
Besides, many companies are sending their resources to other countries where there is drilling going on and it will take longer to reallocate those resources as time goes on. The longer we wait, the longer it will take to restart the process of drilling.
Just trying to point out that doing so won't necessarily have much effect on prices, since the supply (and therefore the world price) is increased or decreased for political not economic reasons and the US price is controlled by the world price.