Originally Posted by DVPGSR
Our old allies will only get closer to us the next time foreign invaders are marching down the Champs d' Ulyss.
I wholeheartedly agree that we need to develop more and more reusable and more environmentally friendly sources of energy. One place I disagree with Bush on is not providing more federal funding for hybrid and hydrogen car technology and not enforcing tougher sulfer content laws in our diesel fuels. However we need to do something now and those technologies are still years away from being largely available. Drilling in ANWAR now would allow us to keep fuel prices low now which in turn helps keep the economy strong while we develop these alternative fuel resources. What is really needed is a bipartisan energy plan encompassing all of that over the next 15-20 years. But there is no way you are going to get a democrat to support domestic oil drilling out of fear of losing the environmentalist special interest groups support they so desperately need for re-election.
Just an FYI so you know more about the ANWR issue... it will take 15 years before we can get ANY oil out of the area, and we would save more oil as a nation by changing the aerodynamics of our tires for the next 15 years than what we could ever drill out of there. The only reason why Bush wants to open that land up is that so he can set a precedent to open almost any protected wildland in the US. Smoke and mirrors my friend, and this administration is full of them environmentally. The ANWR is just a pawn for them to get a checkmate.
We have the means to, within the next 5 years, cut our dependance on foreign oil by half, and we can do it economically. The problem is that the oil and domestic automotive lobbies hold such strength with the current administration that there will be no positive change environmentally as long as Bush is in office.