Palin’s administration last week gained legislative approval for a special $1,200 payment to every Alaskan to help cope with gas prices, which are among the highest in the country.
Seems to me that this disproves entirely the "need" to drill offshore so that we can "free ourselves from foreign oil." (Although what no one ever says is that most of our oil comes from Canada and Mexico - foreign, yes, but not Middle Eastern.)
At any rate, if Alaska is one of our major domestic sources of oil (at least until the AIF Party succeeds in seceding) then you would think that petroleum products including gasoline would be cheaper, right? But of course the oil goes where the oil companies want, and I suspect it goes to other places besides U.S. refineries and U.S. gas tanks.
So Alaska's problem with gas prices is definitive proof that offshore oil drilling will not bring down gasoline prices - not now and not ten years from now.