Changing Our Tune on Domestic Drilling

I've often heard it asked, "at what price would we change our driving habits?" It appears we know that the amount would be $4.00 per gallon plus change.

I guess the real questions should have been; at what gasoline price would we stop being idiots and start extracting our own oil? That question also seems to have been answered:

A poll released last week by the Pew Research Center revealed that 47 percent of respondents considered energy exploration, drilling and the building of new power plants to be the country's top priority.

Five months ago, 35 percent held that view, according to the survey.

Respondents were more accepting of drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and 60 percent felt increasing energy supplies was more important than protecting the environment. Fifty-four percent felt that way in February.

Another poll conducted June 24 by InsiderAdvantage/Poll Position on behalf of Associated Industries of Florida found that 61 percent of Florida's registered voters favored increased exploration and production of oil and natural gas off Florida's coast.

We're well passed the point where this should even be up for discussion. We have the technology to remove the oil in an environmentally safe manner while putting pumps and wells online in a few years as opposed to decades.

I've heard the garbage spewed by environmentalists and Democrats about it taking 7-10years before it would have any effect but that just goes to show how flawed their thinking is. The day we made it clear to the world that we were making it a national mission to become energy independent, the market would free fall. The world knows that we can do anything we put our collective minds too--think Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin.

If we had a sane energy program where we began drilling immediately in conjunction with tax inducements on oil and auto companies to develop a cheap and efficient energy source that has little of no emissions, the world would have to stop and take notice and American business would see a boom we sorely need.

In the short-term, developing nations like China and India would still need oil and the Saudis would still make their money but a generation from now, American technology will be used to get the world off the oil crack pipe. The price of oil would plummet 80-90% as it would still be a commodity for plastics, jet fuel, diesel, etc. but the demand would be a fraction of what it is today.

It all starts with us becoming energy independent but ends with the world using American-made non-petroleum fuels.