This editorial in National Review encouraging Congress to open currently off-limits locations to oil drilling puts in black and white the shortsightedness and unimaginative thinking going on in energy policy. What really gets me is the unwillingness to reach the logical conclusion that oil is a non-renewable resource -- a fact they admit to in the editorial! "But the simple fact of the matter is that solar power and wind can’t fulfill the vital role non-renewables play in the U.S. economy," they write. If you have a resource that plays a vital role in the economy and is non-renewable, then isn't it obvious that the solution is to find a replacement for that vital non-renewable resource? The real problem isn't Congress or environmentalists blocking access to "vast untapped supplies" that at best will be a temporary solution, but rather how the country and the world at large deals with the inevitable transition away from the carbon-based economy.
And it is inevitable. It certainly won't happen tomorrow, and it probably won't happen for decades. But it is going to happen. And managing this fundamental shift is going to require long-term thinking, innovation, risk-taking and political leadership. Increasing off-shore or wildlife preserve drilling accomplishes none of these things. But to the conservative populist, some liberal elite is always getting in the way of the market working its magic, leading the editorial to conclude, "Receiving no help from their leaders, Americans have taken it upon themselves to achieve savings in the face of skyrocketing fuel costs. Simply put, we are driving less. Now it's time for Congress to meet us halfway." Expect much more of this carbon demagoguery in the future, because high oil prices, I'm afraid, are here to stay.
--Mori Dinauer
