Drilling for stupidity

By Michael J.W. Stickings

"One thing is for certain," President Bush said today at the White House in response to Hurricane Gustav, "when Congress comes back, they've got to understand that we need more domestic energy, not less. One place to find it is offshore America -- lands that have been taken off the books, so to speak, by congressional law -- and now they need to give us a chance to find more oil and gas here at home."

Yes, that's right, Bush's solution to the problems of oil dependency and natural disasters is to drill more at home, in domestic waters. How brilliant.

Actually, as anyone not corrupted by the oil industry knows, the solution is not more of the same but something different, namely, the development of an alternative energy infrastructure to overcome America's addiction to oil, foreign or otherwise. This would be "domestic" and responsible -- and less susceptible to damage from natural disaster.

It seems so obvious, but, then, what's obvious to Bush is hardly what's obvious to those of us dealing with reality.