Why aren't we drilling for oil?

[Jim in CT]

I paid >$4.00 for 87 octane at the pump today in CT.

Our country is sitting on untold jillions of gallons of crude (Alaska, the Dakotas, the Gulf). If we followed Norway's lead and headed down a path of responsible exploitation of this resource, we would...

- create thousands of good, sustainable jobs.
- become less reliant on the Mideast and all the headaches that go along with that
- be paying $0.99 a gallon for gas.
- be exporting oil, at our terms, to China and India

I have been backpacking north of the Arctic circle in Alaska. The pipeline isn't hurting anything, the caribou herds are growing by almost 10% a year.

And as desirable as renewable energy is, it's not going to replace oil in the next 20 years,it just isn't.

Put all that together...why in God's name are we sitting on this winning powerball ticket, and choosing not to cash it in?

I don't get it. I just don't get it.....