Not now anyway. I think we should drain the rest of the world's oil before we start drilling our own, then charge them since they will be out.

Of course really, our dependency is pathetic! You would think that by this time in History we would have more regulation for the car manufactures and a better system in place.

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A woman is like a teabag. You never know how strong she is until she gets into hot water.-Eleanor Roosevelt

I will go against the grain here and say I support drilling. Whether we drill in Alaska though, should be a decision the Alaskans make. It is their back yard, not mine.

Lots of research is going into alternatives and that is great. Research leads to progress. The alternatives that are as efficient as oil will not have to be mandated. Ethanol isn't. That decision to use corn for fuel was politically motivated, not economically motivated. It costs much more in terms of dollars and regretfully is the reason millions more worldwide will die of hunger. Your tax dollars at work!

I just read about the large oil strikes being made in South America. This will have worldwide political and economic implications. Kind of takes the sails out of maintaining a war machine in the middle east if their oil isn't so desirable.

Yes, my understanding is that ethanol is not a real option.

My family has a bit of property in MI, and we had oil pumped out (wells went dry in the late '80s), and have checked for natural gas a few years back (not enough to bother). We finally got the pumps and tanks pulled last year. PC or not, I didn't see much of an impact on the critters and such there. Because the area around the pumps had to be kept clear and the grass trimmed, the deer, rabbits and other grass eating critters liked to graze right up the to pumps. There was a good sized stream down from the berm the pumps were on, and there wasn't any petroleum found in it, runoff or otherwise.

I guess what I'm saying, is I've seen oil being pumped, and have not seen it totally decimate the environment - it really seemed to have very little impact on it. Just like logging (which we also do on our property - selectively), you can do it the wrong way and totally mess us the environment, or you can do it the right way and have a minimal impact.

Now, I do think that we really need alternate, renewable energy sources...and burning our food (corn/ethanol) is not the right answer. Oil will run out someday. Drilling in ANWR will make that someday come a little later, but it will still come. Vehicle energy use isn't the only issue - heat and electric needs to be looked at too. We spent $5000 this year on propane for the winter - we need insulation and new windows, but still, talk about a hit to the pocketbook. We're hoping to get a wood burner, since DH is a treetrimmer, and we have been supplying our neighbor with wood since we don't use it LOL - we've saved the neighbor a LOT of money the last few years!

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