.... While the left is fond of saying, 'We can't drill our way out of this problem,' any responsible short-term solution involves drilling. Forget the Middle East! The U.S. sits on enough oil and gas to meet our immediate energy needs. That buys us time to transition into cleaner, more efficient sources of energy. There is little incentive for our oil companies to do more exploration when we won't allow them to tap into the resources that already have been discovered. While it will be five to 10 years before any of this oil makes it to market, the price of oil is influenced by the future's market, so a policy change is important. If the Clinton administration had opened up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and encouraged – not discouraged – the building of refineries, we would not be over the OPEC barrel today.
.... The last thing we must do is fill – fill Congress only with responsible representatives and senators who will support a balanced approach to meeting our short-term and long-term energy needs. There should be no room for extremists who, up to this point, have dominated our energy policy.
