Why the answer to our energy problems is 'Drill, Baby Drill!'

Today dear readers, is Earth Day, a day where many of the more 'environmentally conscious' students at my college (my grandfather would have called them hippies, and he isn't too far off) chose to preach about the virtues of driving a hybrid, he evils of eating meat, and tell how unless we all quit using fossil fuels this instant, global warming is going to turn the world into a Roland Emmerich movie. Their chosen method of doing so, was to hand out dozens of flyer's which most people promptly threw away, before they got into their cars to drive to class because they could not bear a five minute walk.

While I hope to address my feelings about the environmentalist movement another day, I felt it would be appropriate to discuss as certain issue close to the heart - and wallets of millions of people. I am of course, referring to oil, energy, and all the myriad of issues and debates that come with them. While high gas prices have been a steady consumer complaint since the 1970's, and the last decade has seen record highs every passing year. For the last couple years however, things have started looking even grimmer at the gas pump, with a perfect Storm guaranteed to bleed your wallet dry at the pump. As of today, oil is close to $112 a barrel, and $4 a gallon gas will be a reality shortly. Toss in the combination of the current administrations phobia of drilling for oil and fetish for green energy, to say nothing of the continued rebellions and uncertainty in the Middle East, we can look forward to those prices going even further this summer.

Before I begin, let us make one thing very clear: Oil, for better or worse, is the lifeblood of modern society. It's used in everything from fueling cars to industrial production, and without it. almost every facet of modern life would either cease to be or change drastically. On that note, as you might expect from having a non-renewable fossil fuel be the foundation of an entire era, the wells will one day go dry. Well before that point, we can look forward to skyrocketing prices, conflicts over remaining supply, and dozens of other potentially nasty points of conflict.

So understandably, people have begun looking for new sources of oil, or in lieu of that, alternatives. While people have been decrying the USA's dependence on foreign oil sice the 1970s, only recently has there been any serious outcry to increase production in the USA. There is no shortage of places to drill for oil here at home, and it would certainly help to ease prices at the pump for the average consumer. As if to sweeten the pot, it would create thousands of new jobs, and in an economy where even the idealists say unemployment hovers above or around ten percent, every job counts.

In spite of this, dozens of of groups and politicians, including the President, stand against any such measure. In addition to their irrational opposition to drilling or exploring new sources, recent moratoriums on drilling offshore have decreased the national supply even further, to say nothing of costing several hundred workers their jobs. While motivated by a seemingly noble sense of concern for the environment, or dedication to alternative energy, this misguided sense of altruism is the very last thing the nation needs when people are paying over sixty dollars at the pump per visit.

So what can we do?

Let me begin by saying that as far as the dozens of suggested alternative energies, none of them are viable alternatives to oil. While that may sound cynical to some of you, the reason oil is the fuel of choice for the economy is not because it is easy to access, or plentiful - anyone who looks at rising gas prices can tell you that much. The reason that oil is the fuel of choice is because it is stable, easy to process, and the amount of energy you get from it is nearly unmatchable. To become an alternative to oil, one of the dozens of suggested replacements would have to do all of that more efficiently than oil, in addition to being cheaper than oil. and so far, none of the alternatives put forward do that so far.

Take for example, ethanol. Recently usurping hydrogen as the heir apparent to oil, it has become the touted miracle solution to our energy needs by many DC politicians. While the politicians are right that it does have its virtues and charms (and I'm sure currying political support is not one of them, wink wink nudge nudge), they are far outweighed by the negatives that come with them. For example, to provide enough ethanol to fuel every car in the USA, you'd need to cover 97% of the nation in corn fields. Even at the very low levels of ethanol production we have currently, each ear of corn that goes into producing ethanol is one that will never make it to the dinner table - this 'food vs. fuel' conflict is one reason why food prices are going up recently. Lastly, let's not forget the wonderful tidbit that it takes about a $1.27 worth of oil to make $1.00 worth of ethanol. Yes, you read that correctly.

While there are dozens of options that aren't viable, there are several ones that are. Like for starters, begin drilling everywhere at home we can, and start drilling as soon as possible. Regardless of debate on the effect on the environment or the 'why bother since it's just a drop in the bucket' mindset, there is little debate that oil prices will rise if we don't take advantage of American oil reserves. To bring up an example, we've known large oil reserves in ANWAR since the 1990's, and if we'd spent have us much time drilling there as we have arguing for the last twenty years, we'd be getting 750,000 barrels of oil a day from ANWAR as we speak. Debates on how large/small an impact it would be aside, that's still 750,000 barrels a day that we don't have right now. In addition, it would lower American gas prices, and create thousands of new jobs in the process - and in this economy, both are commodities we need to take advantage of.

One serious way to supplement our nations oil supply, and perhaps provide an alternative is to begin building coal-to-oil synthetic fuel plants. South African company Sasol has been selling the product for over forty years, and an American company called Syntroleum recently created a batch approved for use by the US Air Force. While the technology has existed for several decades, the reason it was ignored for the most part was until recently oil was cheaper - petrol produced from coal costs roughly $40 or $50 dollars a barrel - a far cry from oils current $112. Considering the USA alone has anywhere between 100 and 250 years of coal reserves, this could be a game changer.

Lastly, we need to take advantage of the one clean, reliable and safe alternative energy that can have an effect on our nations energy: nuclear power. In spite of it's fearsome, and undeserved reputation, it has one of the best track records in terms of both safety and power generated among any technology available to us today. Yet in spite of this, the USA has for the most part put off building nuclear power plants for the better part of three decades. France and Japan have been safely drawing the majority of their electricity from nuclear for that same time period, and I think we are long overdue to emulate them.

While opponents of nuclear power will give Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, or in the case of a few bold ones, Fukushima as cases on how nuclear power is unsafe on a large scale, anyone who spends time doing even minimal research can see these opponents examples have more to do with hysteria than history. Not one person died as a result of Three Mile Island, and Chernobyl had more to do with manual error and shoddy Soviet workmanship than anything. As for Fukushima, it took one of the strongest earthquakes on record, several aftershocks, and a tsunami to bring it to it's current point - a point I might add, that still has yet to reach the same level as Chernobyl.

In the long term, even that will be inadequate, and we will have to look for a new source of energy. Short of a miraculous breakthrough however, most of these new sources are years, if not decades away, and to not use every source available to us presently is foolishness at best and negligence at worst. Because in the end, regardless if you drive a Hummer or a Prius, without gas in the tank, all you have is a very expensive lawn decoration.