I have enjoyed making snarky comments about the gas prices and the complete failure of the democrat leadership to do anything about it.  Bad enough that prices have doubled since the democrats were elected, but now that they are historically high, they are paralyzed by the necessity to pander to their environmental base.

And make no mistake, that's what this is all about.  The democrats know the environmental lobby has a huge voice and they don't want to be seen as caving in to the pressures of the evil oil barons.

Some friends of mine and I have been having a spirited debate about this, and we all tend to agree that dependency on foreign oil is a problem.  But, I wonder how many people realize that the biggest importer of oil and petroleum to the US is not a bunch of greedy Arabs, it is Canada.  Not only that, but 40% of our oil imports come from non OPEC countries.  Canada and Mexico alone sell us about one third of our imports. 

Or that while we import 10 million barrels a day or so, we produce more then 5 Million domestically.

Heck if we could double our production, we would lower our dependency by about 50%.

So this is not about OPEC, and not about the middle east (since quite a few countries in OPEC are not in Asia), it is about speculators and supply and demand.  Economics.  It is a matter of increasing supply.

So why then wouldn't you want to explore a chance to add to our choices of supply?  Aside from pressure from eco nazis, one reason we stopped US based drilling was because it was so cheap to import it.

Well it isn't anymore, is it?  So why not open up some of the abandoned fields and look for more?

President Bush today opened the door to more off shore drilling, and congress should grow a pair of nads and tell the eco nazis to take a back seat to reality and get cracking.  Sure, we can continue to develop alternatives.  But in the mean time we need immediate solutions.

Critics nay say drilling, claiming we would have to wait ten years to see the benefit.  Maybe so.

But affordable non petroleum alternatives are not going to happen over night either.

So why not let both sides benefit?  Aren't more ideas and optsoin better then less?

And one other thing.  I found this nifty chart showing the relationship between US oil prices and crude oil prices. (click for the full size)

Funny.  If i am reading this right, oil prices are climbing much faster then gas prices.

I guess the evil oil barons forgot to gouge a few dollars here and there.

The point?  It could be worse.

And the other point?  It could get better if Congress would cowboy up and DO SOMETHING.

Thank God we elected the "New Direction Democrats".