Posts: 11295
-
Karma: 502
It's not like you have to pick one or the other, you just have to realize that with one comes sacrifices, so like almost anything that we ever do, we have to find some fucking middle ground.
I'm not some proponent to drilling as a means to solving our problems. Alternative sources (whatever they may be) should be sought after, invested in, researched and developed, etc. However, our economy has its nuts strangled by oil. Nearly every single thing we do is affected by it, so it is asinine to just think we can deal with oil that is skyrocketing, while 1) doing nothing about it and 2) only looking at alternative energy sources.
The problem with the government right now is that it has gone way too far to make it so we can get our own oil. We make it so fucking hard to get oil off our coastlines, from the land, and to build refineries, that of course our energy needs are fucked. The Chinese and Canadians drill off US shores, but we avoid it due to the chic environmental concerns, but in the end, more people just suffer and bitch about it; complaining about the situation that they put themselves in.
While just a single area like ANWAR is not the answer to oil needs (and I'm not exactly fond of drilling there), the broader scope that we can't drill anywhere is hurting more. If we do allow more places to be drilled, we may not get that oil for years, but the prospect of stability is most likely the greatest aspect of it all. That is why, in large part, oil is so fucking expensive: all the speculation on stability is shaken. The Middle East is always a hot bed, Venezuela is a bitch (well, Hugo Chavez is), and we have no means to bring stability because we are reliant on everybody else in this clusterfuck.
The USGS (yes, not some fascist republican organization) has evidence to believe that there are substantial oil wells within or near the US, including ANWAR, and while it is not the answer, the benefits it could bring are substantial. So before some of you dipshits shoot your mouth off, realize the bind we're in, and the prospects things could bring if we actually seized some of the assets, rather than just bitch about it both ways.