Replies to 'ANYONE ELSE SICK OF GAS PRICES? DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!!!!'

You know, back when President Bush asked the American public to vote on drilling in the ANWR, my first thought was, "Oh no, if fhis doesn't come about we're going to see fighting in the Middle East!"

On this, I really hated to be proved correct.

People, all you have to do is pay attention and it's not that difficult to understand why our politicians do the things they do!

Of course nobody wants to see drilling in a pristine environment, why do you think the USA has resisted drilling in the homeland for decades?  The difference is that now, demand for crude oil from the Middle East is coming not just from North America and Western Europe, but from developing countries such as the statesof the former Soviet Union, India and China. And it WILL NOT get better over time, it's only going to get worse. We need to be self sufficient, or nearly so, and we needed it about 30 years ago.

In my opinion our only answer is to develope alternatives, of which ethanol is strictly a temporary source. With viable soils for the production of food in a finite supply, it's criminal to use it for energy production.

But there again, we absolutely have to have oil until we have developed an affordable, widely available, viable and sustainable source. This will take years. We have already wasted the 7 years it's been since President Bush floated that proposition.  How much longer will we be dependent on the Middle East? (With all the troubles that that entails.) It is up to us to decide. We are not at "the mercy" of oil companies or the Arabs, we are only at the mercy of our own impatience for a quick fix and our unwillingness to pay attention to what is really going on in the world. We are only "held hostage" by our short-sightedness.

And a lot of that short-sightedness is the fault of our news media which seeks to entertain us instead of informing us. But that is a topic for another debate and I digress....