America is no more addicted to oil than it is addicted to bread, to milk, to paper, to water, to computers or, in the immortal words of the late Robert Palmer, to love. We use oil -- and other unmentioned but implied addictions like coal and natural gas -- to generate energy that powers our cars, heats our homes, lights our cities, runs our factories. By the standard of what they do for us, fossil fuels are pretty cheap. ...
Rather than concentrating on what the U.S. can do now to increase supply, the President instead decided to use a word that is straight out of the radical environmentalists' dictionary: "addicted." The implication is that our desire to use oil is something that is not just uncontrollable but also shameful. The message is that we must kick this disgusting habit....
Instead of concentrating on increasing fossil-fuel supplies at home, the President used all of the energy section of his speech -- four paragraphs -- talking about such exotica as "revolutionary solar and wind technologies," "producing ethanol, not just from corn, but from wood chips and stalks, or switch grass," and "pollution-free cars that run on hydrogen." Of course, since these alternatives have no commercial viability, the government will have to subsidize them. The latest Carteresque concoction, announced in the speech: the "Advanced Energy Initiative." ...
... it may surprise Americans to learn that, according to the most recent import statistics from the Department of Energy, the biggest petroleum exporter to the United States is Canada (at 70 million barrels in November 2005 vs. 41 million for Saudi Arabia, in a distant third place). Second is Mexico. Persian Gulf (including Saudi) oil amounted to about one-sixth of our imports and one-tenth of our total petroleum use last November.
BUSH SHOULD HAVE JUST DEMANDED - ONCE AGAIN - THAT WE SIMPLY DRILL FOR MORE OIL HERE - IN PLACES WE ALREADY KNOW IT'S UNDERGROUND IN HUGE AMOUNTS: ALASKA, AND OFF THE COAST OF FLORIDA AND CALIFORNIA. ALTERNATIVES WILL COME TO THE MARKETPLACE WHEN THEY CAN COMPETE. THE MARKETPLACE MAY BE READY NOW: AT THE CURRENT PRICE OF OIL, MANY ALTERNATIVES ENERGY SOURCES CAN ALREADY COMPETE.
Nah, the boy is doing this to unbalance his detractors. This will move into a push to drill for oil in Alaska and offshore in the areas you mentioned. Thing is, you find enough to keep yourself going for 10 to 25 years, while developing alternatives. Besides, with current development in energy research and conservation methods, the amount that will be found will be able to supply the upcoming demand with more to put into the strategic reserves.
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