For now: the bill that would have permitted offshore drilling was killed, by the Democrats.

Oh, who cares? This won't not solve the immediate energy crunch; just the next one, in five or ten years—which . . . look over there! la la la la la la, I can't hear you!). We musn't develop any domestic supply. Let's leave the drilling to the sand niggers, shall we? Let other countries get their hands dirty—and never mind whether it's done in an environmentally sensitive fashion. Nor how much energy it takes to ship petroleum products here from overseas.

I want to remain pure, and untouched by the taint of petroleum. And, anyway, I must go wash my Prius off with Simple Green, using very little water. Then I shall go buy some Burt's Bees lip balm—it costs four times as much, but there's no petroleum in it. Sometimes I put a little on my halo, to shine it up a bit.

Look; I'm doing my part. Didn't I tell you about the solar heater for my pool? And I've been letting my hemp T-shirts dry in the air.

I did fill the tires in my bike, and now I can ride to Starbucks, which is a nice place to enjoy a cold chai latte on a hot afternoon while I check my email. Sometimes I get the green tea because it's got such healthy antioxidants in it.

Where were we? Oh, yes: oil. Dirty stuff. Simply don't want it around. Horrible smell, too: just like the tar on the beach in Santa Barbara. Ruined my best pair of running shoes.

Conclusion: oil is bad. Smells bad, and I hear that it makes people bleed, too. Bad, bad.

Bad.

Okay, I'm back. Do we need to look at that map again?

There is no denying that we are in the middle of an energy transition, and I believe that recent oil prices have really brought that home to people: fossil fuels will not last forever. We are living on borrowed time. We all know it.

But we can ramp up domestic production for the next 10-25 years to ease the transition. Given how dense a fuel petroleum is, we will still have uses for it even after most of us are driving electric/biofuel cars. And we don't want to be buying oil from dictators then, either.

Posted by: Attila Girl at 10:02 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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