The problem is that our demand for oil exceeds our supply. However the use of alternative sources of energy (natural gas, shale, new offshore sources of oil, biomass, wind solar energy, etc) can really cut into our need to import energy.

I urge everyone, on a tripartisan basis, to take time to sign the petition that is going before Congress that over 1,475,000 people have already signed! (I update this frequently) http://www.americansolutions.com/actioncenter/petit ions/?Guid=54ec6e43-75a8-445b-aa7b-346a1e096659

 And I guess you libs suggest we do nothing...drive 55 mph, check our tire pressure ect lol, and leave OPEC in control? 

While every other country is out there sucking up demand.  Our oil is 70% imported!!!  WAKE UP PEOPLE.  Just announcing America will drill, will bring the price down.   speculators on Wall Street, and OPEC will be forced to pump more as well.  They will have no choice.  It must be done, until and while alternative fuel is waiting to be produced.  Many smart democrats are figuring this out,  as the MAJORITY of Americans wanna drill, and many have already finally came around.  Including Obama himself (who I dont believe).  Who said about a month ago he would support off shore drilling. 

I am infuriated by the Obama commercial which goes something like: McCain says we should drill offshore but that won't yield any oil for seven years. The Obama plan seems to be not to yield any oil ever. I firmly believe in self-sufficiency, and the USA needs to move back in that direction.

Realistically speaking, we don't really have our own oil to use, at least not enough to sustain consumption in America where we use about 21 million barrels of crude a day (ps. that's almost 25% of global crude oil consumption). Oil companies are accountable to shareholders for producing profits, not oil, and it should be our goal as consumers to drive demand for sustainable energy solutions. All efforts that Big Oil make under the pretense of reducing dependency on foreign oil will ultimately not bring us any closer toward that goal. The key factor behind the desire to open up restricted areas in Alaska has to do with getting better profits on oil produced in these areas (because the pipeline from the northern shore was amortized over a lifecycle that is already complete based upon projections made from the resources there that are already available). There's no obligation or financial benefit for any oil we drill in America to actually be sold here, so it's completely improbable to assume that increasing drilling and production locally will have any effect whatsoever on the cost at the pump or our dependence internationally. People lobbying for "drilling here, and drilling now" are not at all interested in you "paying less" at all. That's just a way to spin it to gain traction behind a cause that benefits from people not doing their research (because it sounds good doesn't it?). They just want to maximize profits temporarily by taking advantage of existing infrastructure paired with high prices before they need to really start progressing towards greener solutions that should be a primary focus today.

ps. The facts and figures on the petition below are grossly inaccurate. Unavailable/restricted resources are estimated to contain about 19 billion barrels of crude, not 38 billion, and a basis for comparison: There are presently 41 billion barrels of crude available in sites already leased from the government that Big Oil isn't drilling for because profit margins aren't nearly high enough. Their note about the lack of access to deep sea oil shale is nonsense as well. Oil shale extraction and processing require HUGE energy costs and have a far greater environmental impact than even drilling does. This process has only become an economically viable option recently because energy prices are currently so high. The cost of producing a barrel of oil from oil shale in the United States would range between $70–95, so the cost of crude must rise much, much higher (and gas prices would be correspondingly higher as well) for access to shale to become a factor at all, and it will never have this petition's desired effect of lowering gas prices.
How about let's not increase our energy consumption, water consumption and air pollution for the sole purpose of maintaining profitability of existing, unsustainable infrastructures. Big Oil can easily become Big Wind or Big Solar if the demand is there.

Check out facsnet or NPR or wikipedia for information that isn't being fed to you directly from Oil lobbyists.

  I believe that using our own oil resources is only a small part of the solution. We need to find more sustainable resources and better utilize the 'green' resources already available. Finding a balance will be difficult as many farmers have switched to growing corn for ethanol as profits are better, but that has negatively impacted consumable grain prices and effected everything from horse feed, to human cereal to milk (due to cow feed getting more expesive).

I don't think there is any one answer to the issue.

Rather find ways to get off of oil altogether...

Demand for oil has risen on a worldwide basis, thanks to China and India, among other nations, who now are driving cars instead of bicycles as their economies grow. (They want their share of the "good life" that they have seen us Americans enjoy for so many years, and that includes cars.) So we're competing with them for foreign oil. There are other reasons too for our rising oil prices, such as the decline of the dollar, so that it now takes more dollars to buy that gallon. I agree that it's not good for us to be dependent on other countries for our oil supply, but I don't agree that the solution is to drill for more oil here. Sooner rather than later we have to wean our country off oil as a source of energy. We could find better alternatives in a relatively short time if we had the national will to do so, but we're lacking the will. (Why was it a Japanese company (Honda), instead of an American company, who just recently introduced the first test version of a hydrogen fuel cell automobile?) Supposedly we're good innovators in the U.S., but we're not putting enough effort into developing alternative sources of energy.

One of my many complaints of the Bush administration is his failure to provide any long term vision on how to get the country off its oil addiction.  Oil is bad for the environment and bad for our geopolitical security, as it makes us dependent on nasty regimes.

Added: Apparently some people aren't seeing the big picture. The U.S. consumes 20 million barrels of oil a day. We produce about 5 million per day. That means three quarters of what we use comes from other countries. How we get around day to day hangs in the balance of the whims and stability of people on the other side of the planet, and those who can change their driving habits doing just that isn't going to make a huge or immediate impact. Researching reasonable alternative fuels is great, but we're not going to be able to rely on that in the near future either. We have to lessen our dependence on foreign sources now so our daily lives and the price we pay at the pump doesn't hang in the balance on what happens on the other side of the planet. 

Original 6-15-08: Gee, here's an idea.

We can use our own oil, create jobs right here in the United States, stop sending tons of money overseas, and watch as energy costs drop. In the meantime, we continue to develop alternative sources that don't cut into our food supply and don't pass bills that end up making things cost more than they already do. 

even as I am sympathetic with louie's call, I have some reservation mainly based on the fact that there is more than meet the eye in the current oil crysis, and it has more to do with future potential events and situations than the current ones. Nothing will lower the price or make more gas available to people than changing the driving habits of Americans. Incidentally, as the prices of gas started to rise, so have the manufacture of bigger and "thirstier" SUV and other gas suckers. In many other matters, a conscious and wide call for refraining from consuming a certain product has caused the price to go down and become more affordable. The same will work with gas. More oil, cheaper gas will not solve the problem, because the consumption and unnecessary waste will increase. We have become a give it to me now, give it to me cheaper spoiled brats, incapable of making some adjustments and sacrifices to improve our personal economies and general health. Pumping oil from our natural reserves will not fix the problem nor will it lower the price. It's a matter of free market, where the supply and demand dictates the price. Gas is a $4.00 a gallon, people panic and fill up their tanks before the price go higher. Then, because of the increased demand, the price actually goes higher. Then those who did not react at $4.00 a gallon, will fill their tanks at $5,00 driven by panic, which will further increase the demand and cause an even higher price. Let's use our power as consumers to change the bad habits and fix the problem, which more oil, more gas at the pumps and lower prices will not solve.

Drilling for oil in America will produce more billionaires, and the price will stay the same if not going even higher.

At $140.00 a barrel of oil, drilling now seems profitable. Once the oil starts flowing, the price will surely come down, and pumping will become unprofitable, which will cause big losses. Not to mention that the only way to fix it would be to increase the price again and make it profitable again, which will get us back to $4.00 a gallon of gas, or even more.

<<< The U.S. Energy Information Administration estimates that drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge would trim only 1 to 3.5 cents per gallon by 2027 if oil is selling at half the price it is now. If prices stay high, the impact would be twice that amount.   >>>

http://tinyurl.com/5n2zy3

Doesn't solve any long-term issues.  Time to think ahead.  Prolongs the inevitable.  "We have our own gods!  Let's worship them!"

We have our own booze.  Let's drink it!

There is not enough info on this site to know what the voter is voting about. If it means using some of the over 700 million barrels we have in our National Emergency Oil Reserve (This has been done twice before), I'm in favor. If it means switching some subsidies away from Big Oil and toward independent refineries (which are currently losing money) I'm also for it. If you are talking about drilling for short-term gains in our National Arctic Wildlife Refuge, forget it. If I don't know what I'm voting for, I can go no higher than two stars.

Currently, we pay approx $136 per barrel of oil. Concurrnetly, we sell these thieves grain for for about 7 dollars a bushell. Well, let's stop the madness, and produce our own oil, and hit them over the head for grain. At the very least, let's make it a even swap

It's called Texas tea.

Why not? Of course its only part of the big pcture, but it could help.