Think Progress has some very smart quotes from a very smart man:
"The days of running a 21st century economy on a 20th century fossil fuel are numbered – and we need to realize that before it’s too late."
"The truth is, an oil future is not a secure future for America."
"We could open up every square inch of America to drilling and we still wouldn’t even make a dent in our oil dependency." 9/15/05
"It would be nice if we could produce our way out of this problem, but it’s just not possible." 2/28/06
"Instead of making tough political decisions about how to reduce our insatiable demand for oil, this bill continues to lull the American people into thinking that we can drill our way out of our energy problems. " 8/1/06
"Now is the time to end this addiction, and to understand that drilling is a stop-gap measure, not a long-term solution. Not even close." 8/28/08
And Think Progress continues, with their own analysis:
This expansion in offshore drilling leases, the Energy Information Administration has found, will have no effect on gas prices or dependence on foreign oil. Nor will it increase jobs, as oil companies aren’t really interested in new drilling — they are already sitting on existing leases instead of drilling them, in order to inflate their bottom lines by claiming the value of leased oil reserves as an asset. Furthermore, a Center for American Progress study has found that money that goes into the oil sector instead of the clean energy economy means a net loss of 14 jobs per million dollars.
As Meteor Blades linked, yesterday, the new move is being condemned by environmental groups such as Oceana, the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Sierra Club, and Greenpeace.
There is simply no way to rationalize or excuse this terrible idea. Not only will it not solve our energy needs, not only will it not pacify the unappeasable Republicans, it will only serve to exacerbate the greatest crisis humanity has ever faced. This one. The problem isn't our dependence on foreign sources of oil, the problem is our dependence on oil.
Once upon a time, a very smart man made some very smart quotes. If only he could hear what he once said.
Update [2010-4-1 7:19:15 by Turkana]: h/t lizard people: