[Wallace T.]

If the environmental whackos didn't put up numerous barriers to domestic oil exploration, especially off the North Slope of Alaska, the Pacific Coast, and the Atlantic Coasts, the US could produce an increased amount of oil and natural gas, thereby reducing our dependence on foreign energy supplies.

[medved]

If the environmental whackos didn't put up numerous barriers to domestic oil exploration, especially off the North Slope of Alaska, the Pacific Coast, and the Atlantic Coasts, the US could produce an increased amount of oil and natural gas, thereby reducing our dependence on foreign energy supplies.

All of that is true. Nonetheless you are not likely to rid the nation of democrats or environmentalists soon and even if you were magically to convert them all into intelligent people, it would be several years before we could build our own production up to meet our needs. There's no telling what might happen this winter with the war against Iraq and the real possibility Saudi Arabia could fall into the hands of Al Quaeda or similar lunatics, and they could very easily be rationing gasoline by December. All I know is that if I owned an SUV, it wouldn't be the only vehicle I owned.