Look, it's not about the beaches!

This excellent piece by Andrew Degraff completely misses the point. Refusing to drill the continental shelf is not about ugly beaches. It is about long term reality:

. We don't even know if there's oil there
. Even if there's oil there it's not enough
. Even if there were enough, it would take a decade (or more) to put it into useful production

But most importantly, feeding the oil addiction is not in any way a good long term strategy. Let the oil prices rise, it is the only way we will actually get motivated to get off the stuff.

Don't talk about drilling the shelf as a bridge while alternative energy cranks up. That bridge is called conservation. We haven't run out of oil even if we have peaked. Getting another fix from the shelf or ANWR isn't even remotely a solution - it's simply a delay on rolling up the sleeves and really getting started on alternatives. NOW.