I think I'm more concerned about the amount of money that's heading to some very unfriendly countries. If we go bankrupt buying foreign oil, there is no future.

Brij, I can agree with you that the economics are highly worrisome, and I think the economics alone is a good enough reason to work hard at building up new sources of energy for the country, as well as to take conservation measures. I just thought of this analogy: what we are doing now is like paying a high rent to a landlord; developing internal, preferably renewable, energy sources is like investing in your own home and eventually owning the home. Plus, imagine that the landlord is a gang drug lord where if you miss a payment he is going to shoot you down.

Do we want to be in THAT position?

The notion that drilling off-shore will provide "independence from foreign oil" or provide any near-term price reduction at the pump is misleading. We probably import more than 70% of our oil. To think we can replace our consumption with the meager oil quantities produced from off-shore drilling is wishful thinking, at best. I t is commonly understood that "foreign oil" means Middle-Eastern oil, while a significant portion of our imported oil comes from Argentina or, more recently, the Canadian oil sands. We could save more through conservation measures than we would produce from off-shore drilling. Not to mention the cost of this oil from these new fields. The collective wisdom seems to be that we can “drill our way” out of the current energy situation. It’s time to face the music, you can’t say we weren’t warned.

As for ANWAR, I continually hear the argument that "there's nothing there." To me, that's exactly the point. Oil fields don’t exist in isolation. They include roads, pipelines, pumping stations, and other permanent facilities. The notion that only a small well pad will exist is untrue. By the way, this is a National Wildlife Refuge. Alaskans are only interested in their own economic well-being, the here-and-now, and not the long-term interests of the United States.

Well said!

I hope one day the American people can recover some of the damage done by oil and car companies. It may hard to re-clear the land of the literally billions of gallons of contaminated water from each shale gas well (see for example the immense "Marcellus Shale") many in use a long time, others being built.

When those companies ask for incentives and bailouts, they need to receive firm "No"s. That applies to the Detroit auto industry right now. If they had not bought out a number of successful growing light rail (trolley) systems in major cities in the 20th century, and then dismantled them to prevent competition with the car and gasoline industries in the 20th century, we could be that much closer to a healthy world transportation environment. See, for example, http://www.culturechange.org/issue10/taken-for-a-ride.htm.

An expert should take a look and analyze - but what do you all think about giving incentives to the newest car companies - Tesla as an example?