Offshore Drilling, Oil Addiction, and $4 Gas

With gasoline at record level highs around $4 a gallon and the economy slumping, John McCain now says he supports lifting the federal ban prohibiting offshore drilling. I'm sorry to say, but such a decision would have no real impact on gasoline prices.

The government's top energy forecaster, Guy Caruso, recently said US offshore drilling would do little to lower gas prices. As most energy experts believe, it would take five to 10 years to bring offshore oil fields online and they would bring in only another couple hundred thousand barrels of oil a day (the world currently demands around 87.5 million barrels per day). Because the fields would take so long to develop and the amount would be relatively small, the effect on price would essentially be muted, said Caruso. We are in this difficult situation today, not because of our federal gas tax or because we're not drilling off our shores, but rather because China and India are demanding more oil than ever, our dollar is weakening each day and we've invested foolishly in strategies like urban sprawl and a fleet of 15-mpg SUVs and trucks. We've been planning ourselves into this situation for decades now and it's time for a real change.

People all around the US are blaming high oil prices on almost anything but themselves (but there's no way my demanding 20-50 gallons of gas a week can be the problem!). Many blame environmentalists and Democrats for being protective of our shores and the Alaskan wilderness, or Wall Street for speculating and trading in futures, or Big Oil for soaking up such large profits. I believe, as does British PM Gordon Brown, that its the growth in world-wide demand for oil, not speculation nor environmentalism, thats been the key factor driving oil prices.

There's no denying it: America is addicted to oil and finding new ways to meet that addiction is not the short-term or long-term answer. We need to finally solve the problem, not merely treat its symptoms. Higher fuel-efficiency standards, research of electric cars, investment in public transportation and thoughtful urban planning (i.e., no more needless sprawl) will be the needed change that will help us five, 10 and 20 years down the road.