With
gas prices soaring all summer across Illinois, Congress finally took
action last week to address our oil dependence. Unfortunately, they
acted to actually increase our dependence on oil by repealing a 30-year
ban on off-shore drilling in protected areas on our coasts.
The U.S. already uses 20 percent of the world's oil supply, and trying
to squeeze out even more from our oceans is a 20th Century solution to
a 21st Century problem. Even the Bush administration admits that
drilling will do nothing to lower gas prices in either the long term or
short.
But what off-shore drilling will do is keep us hooked on oil even
longer and increase our growing contribution to global warming.
Instead of doubling down on our oil addiction, we should tap our
technological ingenuity and renewable energy potential to solve these
problems. For instance, technologically feasible increases in fuel
efficiency would bring returns 10 to 25 times greater than expanded
off-shore drilling. We must turn the page and move toward a
sustainable, long-term vision of energy use.
I urge the new president and the new Congress, whoever they may be, to
move toward a new energy future of economic growth, job creation,
reduced energy costs, and global warming solutions.
Brian Granahan
Environment Illinois
Chicago
