Right-Wingers Say: Drill Our Way to Independence!

Now that gas prices have crept over $5 per gallon in some parts of the U.S., citizens are starting to squirm. Driving patterns and transportation choices are changing, and opinions abound about how best to solve our problems.

Perhaps I should be relieved when I come across websites such as California Political News. Just read their recent headlines: Al Gore is Chicken Little, Alaskan Polar Bears are not Threatened after all, Ethanol is actually a great idea, and global warming has been falsely touted by the media. PHEW – what a relief! Time to fill up the SUV and head to Wal-Mart!

From California Political News:

Democrats have assured us of $5 gas, high energy prices, high food prices and lost jobs. The blood is on their hands. 

Now reality has hit, just as Republicans said it would. We are paying the price for dishonest politicians buying votes. Instead of self sufficient energy supplies, the Democrats have forced the redistribution of trillions of our dollars to foreign nation, making the U.S. dollar weaker. 

The time is now to apologize and quickly move to develop our own energy sources. Over night, when the policy is in place you will see foreign oil drop by half, just to try to stop us from being independent.

Author Stephen Frank’s views are actually toned down as compared to some of the blog’s commenters. Frank’s got it all figured out for us. We’re short on oil, so let’s drill for more! Open up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, drill off the coasts of Florida and California, and suck oil out of shale.

Oil shale is perhaps the stupidest of all of these suggestions, but let’s face it – they’re all short-sighted, idiotic ideas. When someone like Bush makes these recommendations, we can at least understand the motives: he proposes selling off the environment and our health for Exxon’s, his “constituents”, and his own personal financial gains. But what does someone like Frank stand to gain? 

San Francisco Chronicle columnist Debra J. Saunders echoes Frank’s message:

For too long, McCain talked like a Democrat. He was in favor of greater energy independence, of reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and of no new drilling off the coasts or in ANWR – and cheap gasoline. To believe all that is possible in this global market, you essentially have to believe in a good energy fairy. 

When gas prices exceeded $4 per gallon, McCain, like many taxpayers, hit the tipping point where he could no longer afford the romanticized view that oil should only be pumped from yucky places. So he began to talk about Washington offering financial incentives to get coastal states to agree to new offshore exploration… 

…Barack Obama is stuck with the Democrats’ energy policy – which is denial of reality. Global demand for energy is up. It’s not going to go down in the next 10 years. What more do you need to know?

More gas to keep pace with our ever-increasing consumption is not a viable solution. Supplies are finite and the few gallons we can squeeze from domestic sources are a drop in the oil barrel. We’ve designed ourselves into sprawling, car-centric lives devoid of good public transportation and we’re now paying the price on many levels. The price of our fuel may be the least worrisome as temperatures rise, weather patterns are changing, we pollute our air, our water, and ourselves. Does dumping more oil into our tanks and consuming-as-usual sound like an intelligent response? 

Photo via flickr by identity chris is

Related posts:

1. Bush and McCain’s Energy Answer: Let’s Drill Some More!
2. US Pumping Out $440 Billion for Oil Imports in 2008
3. Road to Nowhere: Hydrogen Fueling Stations Nowhere to Be Found
4. Biofuels Are Starving Us