Getting drilled

There are many political outrages to discuss today, not the least of which is President Bush's announcement that he plans to tap Neo-Con warmonger Paul Wolfowitz to head up the World Bank. But, as Salon points out, there's more trouble a'brewin':

At the request of the Bush administration, Republicans in the Senate have tacked a provision onto a budget resolution which would open the refuge to drilling. Since budget resolutions can't be filibustered, now the advocates of opening the refuge only need 51 votes to let oil companies into the still-pristine land of muskoxen and caribou.

On the one hand, the Administration contiunes to encourage Americans to waste their precious resources on larger and larger gas-guzzling SUV's, and on the other hand, they're hyping up an energy crisis that they themselves are helping to create so that they can put more money in the pockets of their oil companies. It seems pretty obvious, doesn't it? How else can we explain the fact that the current energy policy does NOTHING to explore or invest in alternative forms of energy production, nor does it put any sort of common sense requirements in place to make oil and gas consumption more efficient. Instead of a conservative energy policy that encourages Americans to conserve energy and regulate oil consumption, we have an energy policy that says "Burn all the oil you want - we'll drill for more!"

Whatever the cost to wildlife, the Times says, the limited amount of oil there wouldn't do much to fix our energy problems, adding: "Any number of modest efficiencies could achieve the same result without threatening the refuge. Simply closing the so-called S.U.V. loophole -- making light trucks as efficient overall as ordinary cars -- would save a million barrels a day. Increasing fuel-economy standards for cars by about 50 percent, to 40 miles per gallon, a perfectly reasonable expectation, would save 2.5 million barrels a day."

But,it won't just be environmentalists who lose if they start drilling in Alaska. Consumers will lose, too (it costs money to drill for oil - costs which are conveniently passed on to the consumers)...and once we've used up our limited oil supplies, what then? Let's see an energy plan that doesn't focus entirely on helping the oil industry turn a quick profit. Maybe it's time that we had an energy policy that was actually CONSERVATIVE.