Yeah, that's right. Guarantee our autonomy by drilling up everything in sight, but never, never do anything to conserve energy. Then, in fifty years, we will have extracted all the oil in the U.S., and will be consuming more than ever, and will be more dependent than ever, and the people we have depended on won't want to sell to us, because they will need the oil for themselves.

The arguments for increased oil drilling everywhere are just like those for bailing out the airline industry. The "patriotic" theme is as phoney as a three-dollar bill, the idea is corporate welfare. Transparently phoney, but backed by so much money as to be irresistable. And bear in mind, the arctic drilling will be subsidized by Federal dollars. That is, by debt, because of the tax cut. And a lot of the money will be used to pay off the State of Alaska. Which is so dependent on its oil money, it does next to nothing to enforce environmental restrictions, so that the whole operation is a disaster waiting to happen.

And I'm not even an environmentalist. I don't get this information from the Sierra Club, or from NPR. It's right there in the Wall Street Journal folks (in the news, of course, not the editorial page; the editors are well to the Right of Doug R).