You know you are dead on when the marxist, sodomite, nutroots who post here start the name calling!

Responsible, yes - but no veto power for the States effected…the OCS is outside any conceivable area of State authority, though I’m open to the idea of revenue sharing between the States and Uncle Sam (DC should never keep it all - this, of course, from the guy who wants to use Yucca Mountain to hold the rest of the country up for ransom…we need $3 billion a year from the rest of the nation to store the nuke waste…we get that, and we can end all State and local taxation in Nevada, and watch our economy boom!).

Anyway, I don’t see much downside to opening up drilling — as long as it’s done responsibly and as long as the people in the affected states are provided final approval. I just hope it becomes part of a comprehensive energy bill that includes sensible, reliable support for renewables and energy efficiency, streamlining regulation and siting concerns, and rebuilding the grid infrastructure that has been neglected for too long. We can do this. And if we manage to find common ground we can do it pretty inexpensively too — at least relative to doing nothing. Doing nothing is getting way too expensive.

The main thing to remember right now - there is no shortage of oil. I don’t know if you remember gas rationing in the 70’s, but I do…there was, due to Arab embargoes, actually not enough oil to power the United States. Today, we are paying more (even adjusted for inflation) than we were back then, but there is no shortage…in other words, there’s no actual economic reason for the high oil prices, but when the US imports most of its oil and most of the oil is in the most instable area of the world, the psychological factors take over. Any reduction in US demand on the world oil market will go far towards stabilising the world oil market…even just the thought of it has dropped oil to less than $130 a barrel, down from a high of $147.

And, also, we do want to switch over to something other than oil as our primary energy source for electricity and personal transportation - but this will take time, even under optimum circumstances. There is an element of truth in the “we can’t drill our way out of this” meme…though those who use it are being foolhardy in that they use it as a reason to not drill at all…we cannot, from domestic reserves, provide enough oil at current levels of consumption…so we must switch over. While we’re switching, however, it is in our best interest to exploit our oil reserves to the fullest - with no thought of conservation as our goal is to hardly use any oil at some date in the future.

actually…the free market has been screwed by our government and left our shores for others because of egregious taxation and other abuses that are both unjust and corrupt..

we are the free market…and our elected rep’s have been involved in corrupt activities for that have damaged us for the last 60+ years by making quite little deals with corporations that do not have out best interest in mind…profit is not the only goal of a free market…because it demands that all things are equal…and they arent…because of idiots like pelosi and reid…and the failure of the federal body to keep all things equal…by taxing the shxt out of industry and catering to lobby efforts for nothing more than money and popularity constests…instead of the interest of the people who are the free market….screw the corporations that screwed us…last time i checked…the price of foreign goods are not any better than US made product….but the quality sucks…tell that to your congress….when they propose taxing our corporations out of business and when they take money from chinese stooges to manipulate legislation that destroys our economy….

you cant take a pile of poo and call it a diamond…just doesnt work that way…