The newest polls are out Should we drill or not?

It's good to see that a majority of Americans are not entirely stupid or impractical. If only Congress wasn't so cowardly. Perhaps they could do something to the benefit of this country instead of driving us down the path to economic stagnation and socialism. They may be running out of time...I'm not sure how much more the American people are willing to take. They may find themselves on the wrong end of the interrogation and may pay a much larger price than they're willing to pay for defending their socialist principles.

*If you're interested in reading my articles, Click Here.

Problem is, m'dear, that no matter how many places are drilled for oil, it is a limited resource and everyone is just treading water until the inevitable drowning. Americans are supremely spoiled. Gas should cost us at least $10 a gallon, which would force more people into car pooling, taking public transportation, bicycling, walking, eating fewer animal corpses, etc.---and they will do all that, inevitably, because the picture won't get any prettier any time soon, especially with vastly increasing energy demands in newly affluent countries like India and China. Drilling in ANWR might buy the U.S. six months to a year, and then what?

-veghead, liberal/socialist/realist

Unless the United States and the rest of the world can conserve and use vastly less fossil fuels than currently consumed (so far this solution has been a non-starter), new nuclear power plants are in our not to distant future. We simply do not have any other viable short term solutions.

veghead...

When you say oil is a limited resource, are you talking about "peak oil"? What is your definition of "limited"? It is only limited for us because we refuse to recover it.

We have plenty of oil in and around the United States. If we had started drilling for more of it over the last two decades, we probably wouldn't be in the position we are in now. The oil is there. Other countries are drilling for it off of our own shores. Some are making plans to drill for and recover their own oil for the next several decades. They know how much oil they have and they plan on taking advantage of it. Yet we sit on our hands and pretend that we're running out of it or that by increasing our supply it will make no difference. Such is the unreasonable mind.

What would happen if gas cost us $10 per gallon? Our economy would collapse. Food production and distribution would grind to a screeching halt. Life during the Great Depression would seem like a weekend camping trip. The fact of the matter is, our economy runs on oil and nothing is going to change that without overhauling our entire infrastructure. We cannot snap our fingers and be done with fossil fuels. Nearly all of our transportation is petroleum-based. About 80% of our power plants run on fossil fuels (coal, deisel, natural gas, etc.).

How do you plan on making everyone buy a new car to run on an "alternative" energy source? Should the government subsidize every citizen for the purchase of a new car? How are we going to convert farm equipment to run on alternative fules? How do you suggest we get planes off of the ground? Or would you rather prefer that people can't travel? Should we be the society that we were prior to the 20th century?

The truth is, oil has made us what we are today. We are the most productive nation in the world. We have the highest standard of living in the world. We have the most freedoms in the world. Most of this is the result of cheap and abundant energy and the ability to travel freely. The automobile is the symbol of freedom and prosperity. We have the capacity to supply ourselves with oil, so why do so many people want to see us fail? Why do you want to live in poverty?

What is your take on nuclear power? Why should we continue to use coal-fired power plants when we have the capability to build safer, technologically advanced nuclear power plants? That would greatly reduce the amount of fossil fuels we use for the production of electricity. If the idea is to become energy efficient and ween ourselves off of "Big Carbon," why do so many people oppose nuclear power?

Americans may be "supremely spoiled," but what will you do when you cannot afford to eat or to get to work - if there is even a job for you? Would you prefer to be "spoiled" when you are living like a citizen of a third-world nation...just like you had hoped for?

A "realist" you are not. Socialist? - That seems more likely.

*If you're interested in reading my articles, Click Here.

A huge factor in the energy crisis is that people just keep poppin’ more people out of the oven without thinking of the consequences. I and others have been preaching birth control since the 70s, but has anybody been paying attention? Not hardly. The human population is now over 6 billion. Six billion!! How obscene is that? Trust me, the last thing the planet needs is more of us. Breeding is a highly selfish act because every new human is yet another drain on a planet with increasingly limited resources, not to mention the additional space the kid and his future progeny take up, making it harder for wildlife (both the animal and plant variety) to survive. And we need wildlife to maintain the delicate and essential balance of nature. It’s not just that trees are neat to look at or black-footed ferrets are cute. They all play an intricate role in keeping the planet (and us) alive. If we continue to kill wildlife to make room for more humans, we’re ultimately killing ourselves. If we keep insisting on killing billions of animals every year for food, we’re ultimately killing ourselves.

I’m almost 60 and I’ve become quite pessimistic about my own species. I have found that most people don’t want to change their ways, they just go on doing what they want to do with impunity, maybe making a few tiny changes to make themselves feel better, and damn the consequences. You’re right about one thing: people of all political persuasions at least now recognize that we have a problem. What to do about it at this point? Good luck.

I suspect that all the oil drilling and energy alternatives in the world won’t make up for the damage we’ve arrogantly wreaked on Planet Earth already, unless there’s a serious global effort to discourage humans from reproducing themselves. And I’m not holding my breath on that one.

As for oil companies hiding oil so they can get higher prices, that certainly goes on. BUT IT'S STILL A LIMITED RESOURCE! Oil is going to run out. That's a certainty. The question is how soon.