Not only is it a Marxist lie, it is impossible for man is not God and he cannot change the Heavens.

I have to admit that I'm not sure of the Pastafarian stance on this matter. I will have to consult with my local pirate captain about whether the Flying Spaghetti Monster allows humans to change the heavens or not.

Oil is evil and the less we have of it, the better. Infinite free instant solar rainbows will save us.

"Not only is it a Marxist lie, it is impossible for man is not God and he cannot change the Heavens."

Riiiiiight - that's up there with their other argument that "God will always provide." These people satirize themselves so much better than any professional could ever do. It's funny watching morons too stupid to know they are morons do so in public - of course it's not so funny when you realize a major political party owes all of its success to the support of these morons.

I see that 14 percent of Americans also believe the sun revolves around the Earth. That would equate with the 28% of Republicans who still think everything's peachy-keen.

They really do live in an alternate reality.

Remember Hanukah?

Politicians should stop trying to justify resource extraction on the basis of some crazy market manipulation scheme -- they should evaluate the value of the oil the old fashioned way: by the price that it can fetch on the market.

In other words, they should say "this oil is worth $100 billion dollars, therefore we should extract it and sell it". This would tell us (the American citizens) exactly how much we can expect to benefit from extraction.

It's insulting that they focus on how oil extraction will lower gas prices. First, it's very difficult to predict this; second, it indicates that we will not see any of the direct benefits of oil extraction (I guess all of the direct benefits go to the corporations who own the politicians).

It's like they are trying to keep us amused with the crumbs falling from the table, in the hopes that we'll ignore the feast going on up top.

Once again another myopic view of a complex issue. No one is offering up offshore drilling as the only answer to our energy problems. And only a moron would believe prices will suddenly drop But it is ONE small part of the solution. As is nuclear power; coal to oil technology; shale oil, solar, geothermal and wind power....Hey Leonard, besides depending upon China, do you have any other bright ideas? Or are you just content to whine about what we can't do?

...but with a lot of hard work, proper government and business cooperation, and some good-old-fashioned intelligence, we can do better than to trash the environment and further enrich the oil companies. We have to change the future sometime-- and since we didn't start 50 years ago when we should have, we should start now.

and they want to get that "right" or permission while Bush is in office ...

I've been expecting some late "forward moves" by some of Bush's other disgruntled constituents -- the abortion foes, the school prayer crowd, the anti-clean air and mercury people ... some of whom have been very disappointed by Bush's failure to deliver ...

Promises of "all that Iraqi oil" should dance in our heads ... did you see the story in yesterday's NYT that European firms appear to be "getting in on the ground floor" in Iraq while American firms (fearful of security, etc.) are losing out ...

Ironic, no?

"... he cannot change the Heavens"

Does anyone remember The Dust Bowl? That is an example of man's impact on the environment that is not controversial.

Ask Matt Simmons about offshore drilling or drilling in ANWR. As one of the upthread posters said, this isn't going to solve *all* of our energy needs; moreover, so what if the oil ends up getting sold to Japan? As you might have noticed, two-thirds of our oil comes from world markets. If just some oil can come from sources in politically stable jurisdictions, it will help keep things from utterly collapsing. We just don't know how far and how fast the downside of the oil production slope is going to be, but cutting off one potential brake to that is just foolish.

True enough, but this is exactly how the Republicans will sell the idea to the public - start drilling and watch the prices come down, then you can all go back to your gas-guzzling ways (aka birthrights). No shortage of morons out there.

they won't need to use the promise of off-shore drilling to pander to voters .... likely the same gullibles will be attracted ... to that fine sense of "justice" at last -- I mean, don't the Iraqis owe us something for their freedom?

gosh, victory in Iraq and cheap gasoline too.... win-win!

(don't hold your breath)

50 years from now we still had relatively trouble-free access to a natural resource that can be used to manufacture everything from plastics to solvents to lubricants to pharmaceuticals, wouldn't it? I really think it's a MUCH better idea to save the stuff for later when it will come in really handy than it is to basically just torching it now. Oil can be used for SO many things that just stupidly burning it seems criminal.

Saving something for later is so rarely a bad idea, I'm going to go way out on a limb and say that that's the better plan.

all take years to build, have no immediate impact and uncertain long-term impact. Should we just sit on our hands and do nothing?

The same people have been making the same arguments about oil exploration every year for the past 30 years. If we'd done something responsible 30 years ago, we wouldn't be sending billions of dollars a day to sh!t countries and watching our currency devalue and security diminish as a result.

If we don't drill for oil, we'll make it up some other way. Perhaps we'll just make diesel out of soy and in the process starve the entire developing world. Maybe then demand would dry up a bit...