Bush Wants To Lift Ban Of Off-Shore Drilling For Oil

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I think a lot of folks here have heard of President Bush's plan to lift the ban, that his own father made while he was in office for off-shore drilling of oil on our coasts. Yes, we're all griping about the high costs of fuel and gas, how it's affecting our lifestyles, from not being able to drive our cars the way we used to, since quite simply we can't afford to, to the rising costs of food, since so much of our food supplies are shipped in via trucks, so the companies raise the prices of food to compensate for the gas price usage. But is drilling for oil off our coastlines the answer? Personally I'm opposed to it. First of all, as indicated in an article I read...even if over night off shore rigs were set up to drill/pump up oil estimates are that none of us would feel any benefits of this "extra" oil for another five to ten years. Then of course are the environmental issues. Yes, oil rigs are considered safer now. Even the oil rigs in the Gulf Coast weren't affected even during the worse storms going when Katrina happened....but still, isn't it a "ticking" time bomb ready to happen? How can we be completely assured that another Valdez incident won't happen again, that occurred on March 24, 1989 and considered the worse man-made environmental disasters ever created? Here's a few quotes from the article I found: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,368221,00.html (Quote) [i]"For many Americans, there is no more pressing concern than the price of gasoline. Truckers and farmers, small-business owners have been hit especially hard. Every American who drives to work, purchases food or ships a product has felt the effect, and families across the country are looking to Washington for a response," Bush said, speaking from the White House Rose Garden. He took no questions..... Bush also laid out three other options: He renewed his call to open up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil exploration; he also said the the country must be committed to development of oil shale — a type of rock that can yield petroleum if heated, for instance — in the western United States; and he said there must be more refinery capacity. Bush admitted his proposals "will take years to have their full impact" but he said that rather than it being an excuse for delay, "it's a reason to move swiftly" and called on Congress to change the lift the moratorium by the July 4 recess. The offshore drilling moratoria have been in effect since 1981 in more than 80 percent of the country's Outer Continental Shelf. It was instituted to protect tourism and lessen the chance of oil spills reaching popular beaches..... On Monday, GOP presidential candidate John McCain made lifting the federal ban on offshore oil and gas development a key part of his energy plan. McCain said states should be allowed to pursue energy exploration in waters near their coasts and get some of the royalty revenue..... Barack Obama, the Democratic candidate for president, opposes lifting the ban on offshore drilling and says that allowing exploration now wouldn't affect gasoline prices for at least five years. Obama also said there is "no way that allowing offshore drilling would lower gas prices right now. At best you are looking at five years or more down the road." New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, energy secretary during the Clinton administration, called it "another bad idea." "It's going to take 10 years to fully get that oil out of the ocean. It's a fragile ecosystem," he said on CBS's "The Early Show." "You know this president, all he wants to do is drill, drill, drill. There is very little on conservation, on fuel efficiency for vehicles. Just last week the Congress failed to pass a solar tax credit — give more incentives to renewable energy, solar and wind. A one track mind — drill drill drill — that's not going to work," Richardson said. The 574 million acres of federal coastal water that are off-limits are believed to hold nearly 18 billion barrels of undiscovered, recoverable oil and 77 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, according to the Interior Department. The country each year uses about 7.6 billion barrels of oil and 21 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.[/i] So what's your opinion?...and LOL...I'm not a great fan of Obama, but for the first time I agree with something he has said. I'm not a great fan of California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger either but he is completely opposed to this idea as well... As the article suggests, even if we DO start setting up oil rigs overnight, we still may not see the benefits for years to come...instead of this, I think a better plan to create alternative fuels should be in the works, and that don't use up our food supplies either, like corn, and even better designs for cars to run on power other than gasoline...heck why not just find a way to run cars on water?