Bush Asks for Lift on Drilling Ban

President Bush today asked Congress to lift a 27-year ban on offshore drilling in order to lessen America's reliance on foreign oil sources.

Calling the bans "outdated and counter-productive," the President said there was "no excuse for delay." The drilling would help alleviate grossly-inflated gas prices; Americans are paying over $4.00/gallon nationwide. Environmentalists responded that drilling would take at least 10 years to have any effect.

Well, then we should have started 10 years ago, dummies!

Obviously, we need to expand our energy sources - which I have been calling for my entire life - but there is no real reason not to drill for oil on our own property, and every reason to start. After all, no alternative energy source(s) are going to have a major impact for at least as long! In the meantime, automobiles and other, fossil fuel-dependent machinery will have to be slowly phased-out. Drilling for oil now lessens the impact of switching to cleaner forms of energy, lessens our dependence on foreign sources, and makes good use of our independent resources. Further, in years to come, we can improve our GNP by selling our own reserves!

Yes, some of this idea boils down to greed and some of it can be chalked-up to political posturing, but you simply can't have it both ways: no matter what Bush does at this point, he is going to be crucified for his decision.

Regardless, I am MR. Environmentally-sound and even I support drilling for oil on our own land. It does not mean we have to drill every tract of oil-rich land, nor set fire to the oceans once they're tapped-out; a middle-ground approach (often called "compromise") is almost always the best course.

And the environmentalists who so vehemently oppose this idea are largely opposed to it for purely political reasons, themselves.

© C Harris Lynn, 2008