Susan, I think you are wrong, we can drill our way to energy independence,lets try it and see. And what is the downside if we try and fail? Wait for some magic solution? Go back to covered wagons?

Susan, I notice how you don’t provide any solutions for energy independence, just typical lefty propaganda and complaining. Drilling offshore and in wildlife preserves SHOULD be a part of the entire plan. We need to begin drilling domestically asap, build new nuclear power plants and supplement the rest of our needs with solar, wind, geothermal, and hydro power. The liberal dream of an energy independent utopia without pollution, waste, carbon footprints, or potential harm to wildlife is not only unrealistic, it’s as fake as the sincerity of most liberal senator in America - Obama.

Good thing I can afford the gas prices without a problem, because after Obama lets the eco-terrorists and lefty lunatics out of the asylum and pulls out of Iraq without a plan, we’ll all be paying $10/gallon by 2010.

Para Bellum is right. We CAN drill our way to energy independence, if we also dig up the entire Rocky Mountain range for shale oil (and use every drop of Western US water in the process). We’ll also need to invade every other oil producing country in the world so we we can plant oil wells in THEIR backyards too. (Maybe Exxon & Blackwater can merge, so that the oil companies can have their own mercenary force to take over small nations!) Watch out Norway!! You’re next on the hit list!

I totally agree with Susan.Our government’s protection of big oil and big business interests abroad goes all the way back to the early 1900’s.Major General Smedley Butler, USMC,who received two Medals of Honor during his 33 years in the Marines, gave a notable speech in 1933,”War is a Racket”,where he described his role in the military as that of “a racketeer,a gangster for capitalism” and “as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street,and the bankers”. He says “War is a racket.It always has been.It is possibly the oldest,easily the most profitable,surely the most vicious.It is the only one international in scope.It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives.” He also said “The trouble with America is that when the dollar only earns 6 percent over here, then it gets restless and goes overseas to get 100 percent.Then the flag follows the dollar and the soldiers follow the flag.” No wonder I don’t recall reading about him in school.Anything that unflattering and truthful couldn’t be allowed to become public knowledge back then.LOL

I haven’t seen the movie, but I have read that electric car technology was actually in use back in the early 1900’s,before oil interests pushed us in the other direction. Mother Earth News magazine has two books available now,one on converting a used car to electric, and the other on converting to a hybrid(written in 1980!).I would imagine a certain amount of mechanical skill is necessary, but if a skilled DIYer can do it, why haven’t the automakers in this country,with all their engineering and technical expertise, figured out how to do it in a commercially viable way?If they had,many autoworkers ,like my husband, would not have lost their jobs while the CEOs still raked in huge bonuses.My hope is that the emerging green technologies will result in an increase in job opportunities in this country to replace the ones we have lost.Short-sightedness is only one factor in the current mess.Sustainability over the long term needs to become the ultimate goal, for government as well as individuals.

This argument is so retarded. The Dept of Energy has said that the ANWR oil, if put into the market immediately, would lower the cost of gasoline by possibly 3 cents. For 3 cents, I don’t think it’s worthwhile to damage a place we’ve determined to reserve.
Regardless, if we started drilling oil in ANWR it would be 10 years before it made it to market.

Quit whining about drilling new and get behind renewable resources. Not the ethanol scam, but truly renewable like solar.
Oil is not renewable and you’re just prolonging (very slightly) the inevitable.

Just think of all the large-engined Mini-vans, SUV’s, and tricked-out pickup trucks that those same UAW workers have been purchasing the last 20 years. They have only themselves to blame. Try driving a 4 cylinder car or a small V-6 in your vehicle, instead of a huge V-8. We are told to cut back on our driving, which our family has done, but buying a smaller vehicle is a good start. Our family is not small and we get around.

Susan Cunningham:

“Our government is currently negotiating a “long term security agreement” with the Iraqi government, such as it is. This is code for permanent U.S. bases to protect the interests of the oil companies who provide us with the lifeblood of our economy.”

If a long term security agreement with the Iraqi government prevents the price of a gallon of gas from reaching $20, the line for kissing the hem of Bush’s garments forms on the right. Big Oil is the lifeblood of our economy, they perform a service for 300 million Americans that is beyond the capabilities of Stan and Shirley’s Stop and Go partnership on Morganford Road.

This is one of those topics where the ideolouges are killing our country. On one hand you have the drill “end all” fix people that just want to drill and stay with the status quo. Not the answer folks. On the other hand you have people so biased against either the government or “big oil” or for the environment that they put drilling away completely.

Guys, drilling should be PART of a freaking comprehensive solution that also includes nuclear development and other alt fuel research. That stuff isn’t going to magically appear tomorrow, and if it did it still wouldn’t magically implement itself. Drilling won’t increase production overnight either, but tapping into our resources to relieve the short term burden while other methods are studied is a valid idea.

As for the guy that says the price decrease will be three cents, I believe thats the tax free holiday. I’ve never seen one estimate of price decrease from the production of ANWR and certainly not from the combined regions up north and on the coasts. Care to site the article?

And since the war has been brought up, if this is a war for oil where is the free Iraqi oil to drive down our prices? I think Bush might turn that on at some point to salvage his massively decreased popularity. No, keeping a base or two in Iraq is in keeping with our military tradition of keeping a presence well after a conflict is over. We don’t have troops in Germany and South Korea for the beer and rice. They pose a strategic military purpose, in Iraqs case a bulwark against Iranian actions. No one seems to be able to prove the oil connection other than the fact that Iraq has oil. We aren’t getting any of it yet, are we?

RCJ you are right on about the ideologues. We had our wake up call regarding the weakness of our national energy policies in the early seventies. Despite the reality of our situation we have only continued bickering, blaming, and politicizing. The market, not government will resolve this issue. When the pain is great enough, people will put aside their ideology and begin resolving the crisis. The fact that we will suffer an unnecessary economic depression as part of the process is entirely the fault of the Republican and Democrat parties’ addiction to power. Not one; not the other; both.