Is Drilling The Solution?

This is the first of Nextec’s blog topics.  I wanted to start this thing off with a topic that is meaningful currently to every American.  Feel free to post responses to this or any other topic, or to create your own topic.

The topic question for this section is, is drilling for oil in ANWAR and offshore in America the solution to our current problem with high gas prices?

As usual I believe that the answer is yes and no.  From my understanding of the situation, analysts predict that getting crude oil through these methods to the gas pumps in American cities will take approximately 7 years.  Once this has happened we have enough oil from these supplies to provide the country with gas for 2 years, after which it is all gone.  My first thought is that this is not the best option, because it will not provide short term or long term benefits to anyone.  However it is my resounding belief that there is not one answer to every question.  While alone, drilling may not be the answer, abandoning oil as a fuel source will certainly lead to energy shortages, and likewise abandoning drilling all together will most likely cause the price of gas to increase.

So I think that this is part of the solution.  We can drill in responsible areas (not ANWAR) and help to ease the strain on American families while we transition into a energy envirnmoent that does not use oil.  This allows us the time needed to fully develope the renewable resources needed to eliminate oil without making the switch off fosil fuels so sudden and jaring that the economy suffers.  While we cannot control the price of crude, because it is a supply and demand issue, and the supply is limited, we can reduce the amount of oil needed to power our vehicles and homes through increased efficiancy.  In effect if the price of oil remains the same, but we need half as much to run our car, we have achieved the same result as if we cut oil prices in half.  Please weigh in and let me know what you think about this issue.