The Alberta tar sands have proven reserves that hold as much oil as what is in Iraq, and possibly Saudi Arabia if we add the reserves of the northwest USA. These reserves are readily recoverable and the technology exists to cleanly refine it. There are refineries right now begging for the permits to start making gasoline from it.

A common mistake you make and don't feel bad because millions of people are making it. is to think that all of this fuel must be in production or in the gas stations tanks to lower the cost. it does not.

Simply starting the process will drive down the futures prices. Once futures prices fall wholesale prices follow closely behind. All we have to do is start for crying out loud.

Another thing many people fail to mention as they say drilling won't help is where are the alternative sources of fuel thats going to take its place? Oh right its still on the fucking drawing board. So all these technological ideas people want SOMEONE ELSE to come up with do not exist in the real world.

IF a hybrid vehicle that meets my needs is made available I will consider one after my current gasoline vehicles are paid for. How much did your Hybrid cost and are you willing to buy one for the MILLIONS of working class Americans who need to get back and forth to work and still have years worth of payments on their current vehicles?

Ducadmo with all due respect you need to practice up on your listening skills also.

To ignore drilling and recovering oil that exists to help solve our problems is like taking aspirin for a headache but doing nothing to stop the guy from hitting us on the head with a hammer.

Oil is not the only answer but it is part of it and its not just on the OCS its all over the place in the USA and Canada and it is recoverable. The shortage is not even a shortage as there is enough oil to stop this nations slide into ruin. It doesn't mean we don't develop alternatives and thats what you have to get into your head, we use the oil while we put alternatives into place. The analogy of a man dying of thirst is accurate here because Americas economy is dying and the oil to save its life is readily available if we simply choose to use it.

I am sorry but you are being unreasonable. Does your hybrid not use any oil products at all? I think you still need gasoline too don't you? Have you sworn off all products that contain plastic? Have you sworn off all products delivered by truck or train? Do you use electricity in your home? have a furnace or air conditioner, a refrigerator? A washer? A dryer?

A telephone or even a charger? Do you ever use lights inside your house? Did you not require petroleum products to get yourself and your son to Seattle?

See you need lots and lots of energy also and even if you are getting 32 miles per gallon of gasoline you still use a gallon of gasoline every time you drive 32 miles so you need to have oil refineries and oil wells to provide it for you. there is no magic wand.

Every alternative source of energy is going to take time and resources to develop and deploy. That means years and years yet you have yet to say what people should do in the mean time. Or do you think rubbing your hybrid in peoples face is all the energy policy this country needs?

How many hybrid vehicles exist today? 50,000? 100,000? How many millions of Americans have to get back to work next Monday morning?

Hybrids are nice, they are part of the solution, so is the existing oil and so is expanding and improving our refineries. You are completely wrong about the situation with refineries in this counrty. Most run near 80% capacity 24/7 until something breaks. 100% capacity for any length of time is impossible. They are all old and they all have room for efficiency improvements and emissions improvements. Plus refining other types of crude requires different technological systems. Technology that exists and that our own refiners want to use if they could just get the permits to do so.

Incidentally there are off shore platforms being built in Europe and there is no reason we couldn't build them here. In fact a fabulous job creation project would be to hire our existing highly skilled workers to build our platforms here. It will create meaningful employment for your fellow Americans and help lower our energy costs.

Champagne is in North Central Illinois. Hundreds of miles and several hours from me. I have a nephew who will be starting there this fall and a niece who graduated from there a few years ago.. A college kid can walk to class on a campus. Kind of hard for the working class man in the 95% of America with no mass transit to commute without a car.

Gasoline should not cost more than 2 or 2.50 per gallon. What we have now will destroy this nations economy and our standard of living and all we have to do to return sanity to our energy pricing is to take a few very easy steps. We just have to start.