Ahhhh! I'm tired of hearing such utter hogwash out of Republicans regarding domestic oil exploration and the hurricanes. Sen Domenici says "[If we had been in ANWR already] I don’t think we would be paying $3 a gallon for gasoline today." This is absolute bullshit. The reason we are paying $3.00 gallon today is NOT because we are short on crude oil supply after the hurricanes. The problem is lack of refining capacity due to several large refineries being shut down in the wake of Katrina and Rita amounting to a sizable portion of our domestic refining capacity (which is already running at a deficit - we already import refined product from Canada and Mexico to make up the gap). Drilling in ANWR would have had no effect at the pump as they are planning on exporting the bulk of the oil produced their anyway (as is evidenced by the defeat of Sen. Wyden's ammendment). And finally, there's no such thing as "environmentally-sound development of oil and gas in the Arctic." Anything we do up there will have its impact on the extremely fragile ecosystem.

I'm tired of the excuses and the lies. Let's hear the truth: Exxon and other oil exploration companies want to drill in ANWR for the simple reason that they want to MAKE MONEY! It has nothing to do with domestic security etc. Republicans have pushed this bill for almost a decade now, facing continued opposition. Yet they continue to push it because they want a slice of the oil money for their next comapaign.

If we really wanted to do something about domestic energy security or prices at the pump, we would be talking seriously about energy conservation, investment in renewable energy and clean coal technology (making sure it is manufactured in the United States) and a transition to an electric powered vehicle fleet of some kind - be it hydrogen, EVs or plug-in hybrids - thus ensuring that domestically produced energy can power our transport fleet. This would truly grant us energy independence and security and would lower the price at the pump - or should I say plug.

Don't buy this hogwash. Call your senator and tell them to oppose this attempt to open up ANWR ... again. I'd call my senator but he's already on it (i.e. Senator Ron Wyden D-OR).

Jesse, I'm with you on conservation and alternative technology, I'm trading in my SUV for a Prius or a new Civic once I sell my house, but we need to pump more of our own oil. Better the caribou have to walk around the pipelines than our money going to bastards like Hugo Chavez and the wahhabists.

Golden Boy, you write, "We need to pump more of our own oil. Better the caribou have to walk around the pipelines than our money going to bastards like Hugo Chavez and the wahhabists."

Then lets invest our money in domestic energy supplies that make sense. If it will take ten years for the first drop of oil to flow from ANWR and if even then it only amounts for less than 4% of our total imports, I see that as a wasteful investment of our money. If instead we invested that money into an infrastructure to recharge plug-in hybrids and the domestically produced electricity to fuel them - in the form of solar, wind and clean coal (i.e. IGCC plants w/ sequestration) - then we could see a MUCH more substantial decrease in our money going overseas to " to bastards like Hugo Chavez and the wahhabists." Like I said before, increasing the fuel efficiency of our fleet by a factor of 2 from ~18 mpg to 36 mpg would cut our demand for petroleum by 1/3rd (transport needs account for ~2/3rds of our petroleum consumption). This gain would be easily achievable even without plug-in hybrids which could see mileages on the scale of 60-100 mpg. 33% versus 4%. Which one would you rather invest in?

Obviously the $ investments don't equate since Im not sure what either would be exaclty. Anyone know how much it will cost to get that oil out of ANWR? The point still stands that investing in efficiency and domestic electricity supply to run EVs or Plug-in EVs is a real path to energy independence, NOT ANWR!

Golden Boy, you write, "We need to pump more of our own oil. Better the caribou have to walk around the pipelines than our money going to bastards like Hugo Chavez and the wahhabists."

Then lets invest our money in domestic energy supplies that make sense. If it will take ten years for the first drop of oil to flow from ANWR and if even then it only amounts for less than 4% of our total imports, I see that as a wasteful investment of our money. If instead we invested that money into an infrastructure to recharge plug-in hybrids and the domestically produced electricity to fuel them - in the form of solar, wind and clean coal (i.e. IGCC plants w/ sequestration) - then we could see a MUCH more substantial decrease in our money going overseas to " to bastards like Hugo Chavez and the wahhabists." Like I said before, increasing the fuel efficiency of our fleet by a factor of 2 from ~18 mpg to 36 mpg would cut our demand for petroleum by 1/3rd (transport needs account for ~2/3rds of our petroleum consumption). This gain would be easily achievable even without plug-in hybrids which could see mileages on the scale of 60-100 mpg. 33% versus 4%. Which one would you rather invest in?

Obviously the $ investments don't equate since Im not sure what either would be aexaclty. Anyone know how much it will cost to get that oil out of ANWR? The point still stands that investing in efficiency and domestic electricity supply to run EVs or Plug-in EVs is a real path to energy independence, NOT ANWR!

Jesse,

I'm all for doing both. We use around 20 million barrels of oil a day. The almost 1 million daily barrel potential of ANWR is nothing to sneeze at. Further, if we open up offshore drilling in places like Florida and the West coast, we will be talking about a significant increase in domestic energy production while cutting consumption via plug-ins, solar, etc..

Yes, but at the same time the "pros" have been misguided and deceptive. As Jesse points out increasing fuel efficiency would vastly out-strip the impact of ANWR on energy independence. It's not that ANWR is necessary terrible but the way that it's being "sold" is completely misleading. If ANWR is online in 10 years and peaks 9 years after that it's not going to really help us much. Government needs to have a long range vision (markets won't help us solve the oil problem because their horizon is too short) that it's willing to implement that looks beyond the short term market pressures. It's really sad that it's probably going to take an energy crisis to force the solution. It really comes down to sloth (anger, envy, pride, etc are all bad too, but only greed also factors into this problem). People want their SUVs and F-350 supercabs because they're cool, not because they're needed for some useful purpose. We'll get through it, but it's really lame that we'll end up torturing ourselves needlessly in the process.

You dont get a choice bub. They push what they can and avoid what minefields they dont have the political clout to plow through.

Remember folks bush actauly raised milage standards on light trucks early in office and you can bet your ass even that little raise took some serious time on his part to get enough votes for.

About the best he can manage with congress and the senate is insentives for hybrids and such.

To be blunt the only way anyone will get enough clout to push a sizable cafe rate increase through is if gas starts running out in alot of places. AND even then its gona be a freaking drag out fight no matter what party that pres belongs to.

A 1905 Model T Ford was (in some ways) more efficient than the latest 2005 F-150. You could drive it for 40 miles for about 1 gallon vs 2.5 gals for the F-150. There lies part of the problem.

Some will say that the F-150 is bigger and faster but that doesn't mean much in downtown trafic with one to four passengers.

Where is the real progress? Ah yes the price went up from $350 to $35000 but considering the progressive devaluation of the $$ it may be much the same price.

What we may really need is a real change in technology and that could be the plug-in hybrid followed by fully electric vehicles 10 to 20 years down the road. North Americans must find a way to reduce OIL consumption drastically and stop importing more and more from abroad.

At the same time, we must produce more CLEAN electricity for future hybrids and full electric units. It seems obvious that it will have to be from solar, wind or nuclear energy sources and not from dirty COAL power generating units.

At $65 an hour for every GM and Ford worker, the future hybrids may not be built locally. That is another problem to be addressed soon. GE may soon have the same problem with Wind Farms equipment for the local market. Have we priced ourself out of the market? Well...maybe..... specially in certain fields like TV, radios, appliances, shoes, toys, phones, printers, computers, laptops, cars, trains, buses, commercial airplanes, etc etc etc??? Can we survive or services ONLY and rely on other countries to produce all the goods and energy that we consume? Who has the answer?

Not to mention a model t getting into an accident now adays would be certain instant death. A stupid friend of mine who is no more was killed driving one of those when they got hit by off all things a vw bug. The model t was annialated. You know things are bad when your burried in a bucket.

Anyhoo yes im all for using less oil but we also AT THE SAME TIME need to be getting more of our own supply. We wont wait for the general masses to wake up we simply dont have that time.