Polar Bears and ANWR

Sarah Palin during her acceptance speech said she knew about Alaskan oil as someone who knows the North Slope.

That's fine, but the North Slope is in permanent decline. Permanent. She didn't mention that. ANWR by 2018 will simply offset declines elsewhere, from the North Slope to Bakersfield.

Note one important nearly universal energy observation: Efficiencies have come, but demand has risen apace. Demand has risen apace. No matter how efficiently we build hybrid cars, the more efficient they become, the more of them we will build, and the more we use them, the more oil/gas/electricity we will consume. Even here at work -- no matter how many CFLs, shade trees, or 23 SEER AC units SMUD promotes, SMUD still expects future load growth.

We mandate growth in energy supply to keep things going. In my humble opinion, ANWR won't even come close to doing this. It's insignificant in the long run.

Therefore, I am hoping we drill ANWR, beginning yesterday, and punt this political football off the gridiron. Same with offshore drilling. Get it drilled, and get it out of our discussions. Drilling is orders of magnitude cleaner than it was in 1969, and we are more efficient than ever in depleting fields fast. Get it over with! Environmentalists have to expend their energies on things that don't really matter -- like polar bears and ANWR -- because these are highly emotive topics, instead of other issues that would have far greater environmental returns...like better urban design, maybe?