Offshore drilling

To solve the energy crisis President Bush recently proposed to end a ban on offshore oil drilling. The amount of oil that could be found offshore is estimated to be sixteen billion barrels by the federal Energy Information Administration. This may be Bush’s last resort to do something to impact four-dollar a gallon gas.
But, it is up to Congress to decide whether this ban will be lifted. Considering the democrats are the majority party it is doubtful that they will vote in favor of Bush. Democrats are known for their environmentalist ideals, and offshore drilling could hurt wildlife. Though some do say if the drilling is done correctly it won’t cause any significant damage.
When I first read this article I felt that perhaps offshore drilling is a small sacrifice needed to ease pain in many pocketbooks, including my own. I spend about $120 a month on gas, and that rate is steadily climbing. It probably wouldn’t cause me that much heartache if the prices went down significantly for a small portion of environmental damage.
The rest of the American public would probably follow suit. If they noticed prices were down, they would be happy about if and support for the Republicans would increase.The majority of Americans wouldn’t delve deep and find out what environmental damage has been done. Though there are many powerful environmental interest groups. Human nature is generally selfish, not in an evil way, but just “must look out for number one” way.
In reality offshore drilling most likely won’t produce lower prices. The Energy Information Administration affirms this. The supply would go up a few percentage points but the demand would still be very high.
I commented earlier that I wouldn’t be too upset over a small portion of environmental damage. But the damage would become greater and greater as our last resort would become our regular source of energy. So after all of our energy sources are drained we are left with nothing.
Alternate fuel is our only lasting hope to solve this crisis. Messing with the environment at the cost of an amount of fuel that wouldn’t sustain us very long is not a solution. For example, hydrogen is an alternate fuel. Resources need to be spent finding a solution that will last.