When the floor crowd at the Republican National Convention began yelling "Drill, baby, drill!" during Republican vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin's speech, I sincerely hope they were referring to trepanning, an ancient practice of drilling a hole in the skull to treat mental illness.
Drilling a hole in your head in hopes of releasing evil humors makes about as much sense as authorizing offshore drilling in hopes of releasing America from high gas prices.
However, Democrats are beginning to waver under strong pressure to relieve the pain in our pocketbooks.
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi said in a radio address on Aug. 16 that the House "will consider opening portions of the Outer Continental Shelf for drilling, with appropriate safeguards, and without taxpayer subsidies to big oil" as part of a larger bill which will also include renewable energy quotas for utility companies.
According to an Aug. 16 article in the New York Times, House Minority Leader John A. Boehner, R-Ohio, called the Democratic proposal "another flawed plan that will do little to lower gas prices" and intimated that the Democrats weren't "truly serious about increasing production of American energy and lowering the price of gasoline."
Seriously? Does Boehner honestly think that authorizing the oil companies to drill for what amounts to one one-thousandth of America's consumption will make a dent at the pump?
According to a Department of Energy report, "access to the Pacific, Atlantic and eastern Gulf regions would not have a significant impact on domestic crude oil and natural gas production or prices before 2030."
Of course, this scenario assumes the existing moratorium on offshore drilling remains in effect until its natural expiration date of 2012. So if the moratorium was repealed by conference and the government began offering leases as of Jan. 1, 2009, we might see a break at the pumps in 2027.
McCain will be dead by then!
Ending the moratorium will make an estimated 8 billion barrels of recoverable undiscovered oil available. California's state moratorium on offshore drilling is firmly in place, taking their estimated 10 billion barrels out of the equation.
This will increase American crude oil production by 133,000 barrels per day. According to a September 2008 Department of Energy Report, the United States Currently consumes over 20 million barrels per day. So, barring any increase in demand, sometime in the next 20 years we could see a 0.6 percent increase in domestic oil production.
Wow! That oughta make a dent.
No wonder New York Times columnist Bob Herbert calls Republican promises to relieve high prices "the latest example of a very real fear (that sky-high energy prices will undermine the average family's standard of living) being exploited shamelessly for political purposes."
Now, I'm not opposed to offshore drilling. The big oil companies should go after the estimated 34 billion barrels actually already available in the Gulf of Mexico, in addition to the 7 billion that have been tapped so far, before they drill elsewhere.
However, any drilling ought to be considered as part of a broad-based plan for energy independence which doesn't sacrifice our other natural resources, like clean water and air.
This plan needs to include incentives and an infrastructure plan to take advantage of wind, solar electricity and heat, geothermal, hydroelectric (especially new river-run projects which don't require the construction of giant damns) and improved energy efficiency.
Amory Lovins, energy guru and founder of the Rocky Mountain Institute, a non-profit dedicated to sustainable and regenerative resource use and a consultant on UNL's new Multi-Cultural Center, has pointed out that tripling the fuel efficiency of our current vehicles "will ultimately save eight million barrels of oil a day - equivalent to finding a new, secure and inexhaustible Saudi Arabia under Detroit."
Let's drill that!
Let's tap good old American ingenuity and know how to solve our "oil addiction!" That's probably one of the only smart things President Bush has said in the last eight years.
The Democratic proposal put forth in the House of Representatives this month is a step in the right direction. And yes, I'm aware of how heavily Speaker Pelosi is invested in Mr. Picken's wind energy project, a clear conflict of interest.
But simply opening the way for more drilling when we are not even exploiting the resources we have, and ignoring what else can be done to help solve this problem isn't going to help. It might calm the fears of panic-stricken speculators for an hour or two, but then the bidding war will begin again and prices will continue to climb.
The Republicans are offering false hope in an effort to capitalize on our fear and gain a few more points in the polls.
The Democrats our offering a holistic solution to a complex problem, and they need our support.
Monica Sanford is a 2nd year graduate student in architecture and community and regional planning. Reach her at monicasanford@dailynebraskan.com
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