All the big name company's around here are drilling for gas and if its and oil well they get than they plug it and write it off on their taxes at the end of the year and still make a bundle of money off of it.

Check out this site for more on BIG OIL.

http://www.hurherald.com/cgi-bin/db_scripts/articles?Action=user_view&db=articles_hurherald&id=29567

This company has leased up a bunch of sites here and they are drilling for nothing but gas and no OIL.

So on the one side of the coin is a surety of 30 -50 years of oil production, giving the US time to come up with viable alternative energy sources, and on the other is the disputed global warming / global cooling / global climate change theory. Only a total idiot would not use the breathing room of these oil reserves to develop more renewable, more efficient, and less polluting energy sources. However, if our economy collapses because of uncontrollably rising energy costs, who is going to develop those new energy sources? Stasis is subject to momentum...

I've got news for you, America, we're ALL getting screwed!

Yes, there is a tiny sliver of the population that is so mind-bogglingly wealthy that it is thoroughly insulated from the utter degradation of our society--in public education, health care, infrastructure--that has been going on for the last 30 years.

But I'm talking a fraction of one percent of income "earners." And I put that word in quotes because many of these people don't actually earn wages like you and I do; they live off of their investments, which are currently taxed at 15 percent.

Oh, and by the way, these folks don't pay taxes the same way you and I do. You think your CPA did a great job for you with all of those clever itemized deductions? Managed to skirt that alternative minimum tax last year by the skin of your teeth?

Maybe you are a property owner and hate the onerous regulations that those goddamn Democrats keep forcing down your throat. Doing what you want to do with your own property is almost a sacred right in this country. What business is it of theirs?

Maybe you started your own business but hate the fact that all the decisions in your town seem to get made by those Republican old boys who play golf every Saturday afternoon at the country club. Bunch of closed-minded bigots.

I used to work at a law firm with a tax department whose partners and associates could wallpaper a good-sized media room with Ivy League law school diplomas. Guess who they work for? Corporations and "high net-worth individuals." Their clients are the ones who declared "class warfare" on the rest of us a long time ago.

There's a lot of disagreement in these comments about Andrew's post. But I'd bet most of my meager 401(k) savings that everyone who has commented here today isn't among the blessed number of Americans who can pay the hourly rate of a tax partner at a global law firm.

My point is that we've got a lot more in common than we think we do. We are all struggling to pay the bills, and we all want a livable, better world for our children and grandchildren.

Right now, we've got an entrenched and unbelievably cynical and short-sighted moneyed and political class pulling the strings in our country. It's OUR country! Democrats, Republicans--at least most of the ones we've got right now--they have been corrupted. We need a change.

My takeaway from Andrew's piece was that oil is in the past. This issue about drilling is just another way to divide us. It may be that we will eventually need that oil to power the machines that build the solar, wind or nuclear generating stations that will power the vastly expanded electrical grid we'll need to live sustainably.

Our civic and political "leaders" long ago abandoned our best interests. Their only goal is to perpetuate their own power. Let's break this cycle.

Are you a complete moron? CO2 is the friend of this planet, the oceans need it, plant life needs it, humans need it, etc. Our world is a self cleaning oven if you catch the metaphor. Go back to school and quit trying to scare people into voting for "nuanced" Democrats!!!!! Our atmosphere contains approximately 380 parts per million CO2, it has been much higher in the past and much lower in the past, why? Mother Nature!!!!! Help the working people, drill for oil!!!! MylesD.

Don't disagree at all that we can't drill our way out forever. All I want is the temporary downward pressure on oil prices to give us breathing room, that's it. And if you're for drilling on the continental shelf then you and I have no disagreement. You're right, it IS the coastline states who have been the obstructionists thus far (which is why McCain leaving it up to the states is considered a transparent dodge by conservatives like myself).

If you'll allow that it's a good idea to try for some temporary relief I'll concede that it's possible the downward pressure on gas prices may or may not be a huge thing, and further I'll go along that I want full-speed ahead towards an alternative solution such as hybrids in a nuke-powered grid or something else that is economically feasible and can provide more than a fraction of what we need.

in terms of responsibly exploiting our resources, The United States is perhaps the most qualified country in the world. Instead we shamefully export the environmental risks to regions of the earth least suited to deal with them.

The wildlife of Venezuela, Russia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, Angola.... bear the burden of our hunger for oil... this so our shores can remain that Baywatch utopia our country has become so famous for.

Worse still our hunger for oil funds some of the most vile autocratic regimes on the planet. Regimes who in turn use the $5/gallon oil revenue we pay at the pump to enrich their families, further oppress their enslaved populations and threaten their neighbors.

Canada has been responsibly exploiting their oil fields, Tar Sands and Shale fields for decades... Responsible Americans write to your elected officials - we can do at least as well as they and perhaps save our economy for another generation until Hydrogen is viable.