Not pointing any fingers (hey, I'm guilty too), but everyone here is doing their part to confirm our country's dependence on petroleum and our lack of will to find sustainable alternatives. We walk on a slippery slope (excuse the pun, which I only noticed after the fact) when we claim to support conservation of fish and wildlife and then seek to escalate crude oil production in the same breath. The reserve argument makes sense, but allowing other countries to deal with the environmental impacts is not a responsible (or entirely valid) justification for continuing to import oil. It doesn't matter where it comes from; oil from spills get carried around the world by ocean currents, and the atmosphere is polluted when we burn it. It affects the whole planet, regardless of where it is produced.

Despite the fact that I do my fair share of driving (thereby contributing to the status quo), I firmly believe the next "New Deal" needs to be centered around developing clean, sustainable energy and effective mass transit. As long as big oil maintains its stranglehold (or before we run out of oil - 2% of the former reserves probably won't last forever), there's little chance of that happening.