Drill Here...Drill Now!!!

The new battle cry for two-thirds of all Americans is "DRILL HERE...DRILL NOW"! Not because we think it will decrease gas prices today, but because it makes sense for the future. Yet Nancy Pelosi and her Democrat colleagues just don't get it. They act like they're concerned. But are they? Their stated energy policy, in answer to this popular and getting very loud request is only two fold.

First, they are demanding that President Bush immediately tap into part of our Startegic Petroleum Reserve. Will this really do any good to lower prices? The reserve has approximately 700 millions barrels of oil available. Since Americans use about 20 million barrels of oil per day, the reserve has a total of about 35 days worth of oil. How much are they wanting to remove..one-quarter, one-half? If they remove half of it, that's about a two weeks supply. In two weeks, the average family will probably fill-up once, maybe twice. That would save the average family about as much money as the proposed "Gas Tax Holiday" and it would probably do nothing to lower the prices of the commodities that have gone up as a result of the higher gas prices.

Second, Nancy Pelosi states, "We need to put in place a real energy policy...one that frees us from dependence on foreign oil, uses American ingenuity and innovation to power our country with new clean technologies, and creates hundreds of thousands of new jobs while reducing climate change." The last time I checked cars do not run on solar or wind power. Very few homes are powered by these sources either. That's not to say that they won't in the future, but what about right now? If we drill here at home using the newest technologies we have at our disposal, we WILL decrease our dependency on foreign oil and we WILL create more jobs.

Yes, alternative energy sources like wind power, solar energy and natural gas, must be a major part of any sound energy policy. And yes, we must do all we can to develop these sources for the near future. However, it is also imperative that we act intelligently when it comes to our own oil sources. We must take action now by drilling here at home and helping to decrease our dependency on foreign oil. Because, let's face it, unless the government and environmentalists are going to buy every American a new hybrid or natural gas powered car, we will be needing oil for a long time to come.

President Bush has tried several times during his administration to get Congress to allow drilling here at home. Each time his efforts have been thwarted by the Democrats. So I ask again, are the Democrats really serious about decreasing our depenency on foreign oil? I don't think so. I think it sounds good to voters so they keep repeating it in hopes we will believe them. Are we that gullible?