While regular American families are struggling to figure out how they'll afford to pick up the kids and drive to work, the oil industry has been celebrating billions of dollars in profit. As gas prices empty the wallets of American families, how can we justify continuing to subsidize Big Oil as it rack up tens of billions in record profits?
We're not just paying at the pump, either. Big Oil and the Bush administration are pushing harder and harder to open our last, best wild places and wildlife habitat to drilling. If they have it their way, we'll be paying for oil with our natural treasures -- places like the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and the Polar Bear Seas.
Drilling these places won't do anything to ease pain at the pump or create energy independence. Even at peak production, which could take 20 years, the Refuge would produce roughly one year's supply of oil. The best evidence suggests that gas prices would drop by only pennies per gallon if drilling is allowed.
The honest answer to our oil problem is to use less of it, and that means better fuel efficiency and renewable energy. Instead of the failed policies of the past, it's time to break our addiction to fossil fuels by shifting our priorities-and our policies-toward creating the clean energy economy. It's time to take back the giveaways to Big Oil and invest in clean, renewable energy and efficiency which will save us money and create jobs. - From http://www.sierraclub.org/gasprices/index.asp
