Drilling Is Not An Answer

Again today President Bush continued on the Republican talking point of the Congress needs to approve more drilling. The facts have not changed, drilling will not solve anything. If off shore drilling were approved today how many rigs would be available to set up and start drilling within the next year, or two years or three years? The answer is none. It takes years to build oil rigs capable of deep sea drilling. Then after years of building the rigs it will take years before any oil is sent to market from any off shore drilling platforms. Yet, The Republicans, even using the President as a propaganda tool insist on telling the American People that if Congress would only pass some legislation giving more off shore leases to the oil companies, that the price of gas will go down.

Drilling is not a solution in the short term or the long term. In the time it takes to build the rigs, drill for oil and refine and send it to market, the Nation could be well on our way to a New Era of energy self-sufficiency. This Republican Administration and the continuation of it, should McCain get elected, insists on keeping American in the last Century. The Nation will not benefit in the future by forestalling the inevitable move towards a new energy. The future belongs to renewable, sustainable, alternative energy. The Past is Fossil Fuels. Leadership means to pave a path towards the future not to cling to the past. The Republican Party which claims they are led by a Conservative agenda clings to the past, what our Nation needs is a Progressive Government, a government that is willing to foster progress. Progress is not drilling, it is planting the seeds for new energy technologies and applications to be developed and implemented. A Determined Nation with steadfast leadership can easily be withdrawn from the fossil fuel addiction within 10 years. In order for that to happen the game of drill here, drill now must end. A cohesive, funded plan must begin that will make every Government owned building retrofitted with alternative energy solutions that will create jobs, foster research, spur on completion, and make the applications affordable and readily available to all the buildings of the Nation.