'll let T. Bone Pickens answer that question. More drilling will not even put a dent in our energy dependence problem, & the little it would accomplish will take 10 years to be realized. More drilling is just a RNC smoke screen to hide behind & be able to point their fingers at anyone else for election rhetoric purposes only.
I usually stay out of these conversations because my anger at our government always shows through but you're dead on accurate about this. Alaskan oil was meant to help make us energy independent but a large portion now gets sent to Japan. That was compliments of Clinton. Oil is a global commodity. It will be sent to the closest market because of transportation costs. It makes sense. What doesn't make sense is to blow smoke up our collective butts milking our patriotism saying American oil is for Americans exclusively.
Pickens is right. We need to invest in alternate energy. Something most of us on this board have done or are in the process of doing for our heating needs. CAFE standards for cars need to be raised. We don't need to tell the auto industry how to do it. Engineering is their job. I bought a 71 chevy nova new. It got about the same mileage as my 3 year old Sonata.
Where we disagree is in who's to blame. I don't blame politicians, oil companies, auto companies or OPEC. They are acting in their own self interest. The fault is ours. We are about 5% of the world's population and consume 25% of the world's resources. We haven't demanded efficiency, we reward waste by buying junk. Most people have no need for those monster trucks and SUV's but they were the hottest selling automobile for years.
To paraphrase one of my old company's sayings, We need to be leaner and meaner. We need to make energy efficiency our top priority both personally and as a nation. If we're not willing to take the bull by the horns ourselves we can't expect government to fix our problems for us.
OK, getting off my soapbox now and returning to my plumbing project.
) is that after almost 14 years of Republican domination of Washington .
)
