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The REAL argument is NOT whether drilling offshore and in ANWR will free us from dependence on foreign oil (it won't). Nor is it whether drilling in those locations will wreak environmental havoc (it probably would). It's that aggressively exploiting those resources will create an illusion that will only exacerbate our current energy death spiral.
We were taught, but clearly failed to heed, this same lesson once before, after the oil shock of the mid-1970s. After that, government policy focused on forcing oil prices down and keeping them low. Did people by then realize the wisdom of smaller vehicles, energy-efficient homes, and mass transit?
FUCK NO! In accordance with the Reagan-era cult of shameless extravagance, they went out and bought the street equivalent of the Death Star, built 10,000 sq. ft. McMansions, and voted down light rail because the additional tax bite would preclude being able to afford fender skirts and curb feelers on their new Hummers.
Ideally, we should be true to our inner tree huggers and leave those resources lie. The sad truth, though, is that we may well eventually NEED to tap some of that oil. The purpose, however, WON'T be to make this country "energy independent." The available resouce is now simply too scarce to achieve that end. Prudently exploited, these resources MIGHT at some point buy us the time to keep our economy from tanking, our bodies warm in winter, and our (hopefully fuel-efficient) vehicles from becoming so many scattered monuments to gluttonous human folly.
The problem we have now that we didn't have in 1975 is that now there are 2.5 billion Asians whose appetite is not only just as ravenous as ours for that precious crude, their bank accounts (and accounts receivable ledgers, as well) are also FLUSH with American dollars to buy it with. And make no mistake: If Li Wong or Rajiv Sanjpie offer so much as a nickel more for a barrel of oil, I don't care whether it's pumped from ANWR, the Everglades, off Malibu, or from directly under the White House, Exxon-Mobil will be more than happy to sell it to THEM instead of YOU!
The only real way to ultimately render the price of oil irrelevant to this country is to use less of it - a LOT less! And the time to begin that project is - WAS - 1975.
