Against the tide

It seems that the high price at the pump is swaying Americans' attitudes about drilling off our coasts. So rather than count on Congress to maintain its off-limits stance toward that drilling, I wrote my Senators and Representative today:

Senator Reid, Senator Ensign, Congressman Porter,

With gas prices as high as they are, it's tempting to get into a "drill anywhere and everywhere" mode to find more oil. Unfortunately this will solve neither our short term nor our long term energy problems.

I am opposed to drilling in the Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge and to any additional oil exploration off the U.S. coastline. I urge you to vote against any bill that would open either of these areas to drilling for oil.

I believe that the world's supply of oil that's easy to find and extract has already been used. It will be more expensive to find and pump whatever is left.

If we were to end the ban on offshore drilling, it would be decades before we'd see an impact:

A 2007 Department of Energy study found that access to coastal energy deposits would not add to domestic crude oil and natural gas production before 2030 and that the impact on prices would be “insignificant.”

So even if we moved ahead with offshore drilling, the results would be a long time coming.

Think about it: more than 20 years before offshore drilling would make a meaningful impact to U.S. supplies.

And the amount of oil likely to be found off the U.S. coastline would increase supply by only a small amount, meaning we'd see a miniscule impact to oil prices.

We could spend the next two decades trying to feed our oil addiction...

Or we could use that time to focus on the development of new energy sources, greater conservation, and the simultaneous improvement of the health of our species and our planet.

Risking our coasts and natural environment is the fool's route, the one that seemingly gets us off the hook but leaves our children in an even worse predicament.

Please vote against opening up the U.S. coastline or ANWR to drilling.