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Monday, July 07, 2008

A plan for our energy future?

Support for drilling offshore, in the Arctic, and just about everywhere has been rising along with gas prices.  Some enterprising cost-conscious folks have even launched an internet petition drive to encourage more drilling to increase supply and lower prices - a move I'd describe as "drill here, drill now, pay later."

Because, first of all, with the number of oil consumers increasing daily in China and India, there's no supply of oil large enough to bring prices back to $20 a barrel.  The supply/demand effect works both ways and more oil -> cheaper oil -> greater demand. 

And second, increasing oil supply to lower prices (which will increase consumption) ignores all the shitty environmental effects we've been trying to avoid, from wrecking the Arctic landscape to adding to the global warming problem. 

And of course, we're not going to see any of that new oil in the next 10 years, anyway, so if folks are looking for immediate relief, they're out of luck.  Sorry.

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