Drill, Baby, Drill!

Gasoline prices are going through the roof. With costs at around four bucks a gallon in many localities, it seems a safe bet that many if not most families are going through hardship simply getting back and forth to necessary places such as work and the grocery store. What, then, is our President doing about it?

Encouraging Saudi Arabia to produce more oil.

Does anyone see the silliness in that approach? Is it not obvious that we are being reduced to pleading with other nations to satisfy our energy needs? If we had done more to encourage production in our own neck of the woods, we might not be in the position of begging for alms.

It takes five to seven years, in many cases, to set up production in domestic oil fields. When you consider areas such as the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, the time frame may be longer. Does anyone remember that it was the 1990's, under President Clinton, when talk of drilling in the ANWR was first proposed? We could have had access to that oil by now, except that keeping a pristine wilderness for polar bears and caribou (read that: creatures less important the human beings) seems a higher priority than our daily bread. This despite the fact that a very tiny area of the Arctic would have been affected by drilling anyway.

If you want to pressure someone else into increasing production and lowering the price of anything, you need to demonstrate that you have options. Domestic drilling would fit that need. It is high time we began work on it with far greater degree than we have lately. In short, if we want more oil out of the Saudis and other oil producing countries, we must show them that we have alternatives. Otherwise, we will continue to be at their mercy.