Obama opened himself up to a lot of criticism with the "air pressure" statement. I know that is really not his entire energy policy, but his full statement was that proper tire inflation would do more for energy prices than drilling off-shore, or wherever McCain thinks we should drill.

To be fair, "O" has reversed his view on drilling, since the polls clearly indicate he was marching to a non-populist drummer on that issue; but let's look at some of the arguments against drilling.

Argument 1: Drilling won't return anything useful for seven/ten/fifteen/thirty years

That would have been true had we started from scratch twenty years ago. However, there are plenty of producing wells, and moth-balled wells, that can be producing in anywhere from six months to two years. The company I work for is one of those pioneering sideways drilling, allowing the oil and natural gas companies to use existing wells and reach new pockets with a few days of work, rather than the months that are required in a new field. To some extent, that kind of work is already happening.

Argument 2: Big Oil will just raise the price...

The only way ths works is with a level of collusion among the industry giants that boggles minor conspiracy buffs like me. The biggies are in competition with each other. I pass several clusters of gas stations on my way home, and I see it all the time; one station drops the price, the others have to follow suit to get any customers. Coordinating the ballet of the pricing signs would require a coverup that defies mortal capacity. We can't even keep military secrets that are vital to national security off the front page of the New York Times - how likely is it that the big oil fatcats could be involved in such a large conspiracy and get away with it?

Argument 3: Demand is rising globally; more supply won't help

Demand is dropping here in the US (primarily due to the price). Most analysts looking at the global market recognize that the East (China and India, not Boston) has only just started what is bound to be a masssive increase in demand. As that continues, the curve will shift, and not in a way we will like. China is cash-rich, and will be able to buy up the mideast oil faster than you can say "currency rate".

Is that a reason to give up on producing more? That seems backwards to me. Seems like we should be getting more into the production game to keep pace, at the very least, with demand rather than trying to avoid it.

Here's a thought; if we are sitting on large oil reserves, and China gets thirstier than the mideast can supply, where will they go for the oil? We could become a source, equalizing our trade debt, and buying back some of our debt China holds. Or we could sit on this ocean of resources and pray that the People's Republic doesn't decide that they will exploit what we are ignoring. Over our dead bodies, you say?
Exactly my point.

Argument 4: We need to be developing other sources...

Great. Let's do. But the reality is that we are completely, utterly dependent on oil. If you were facing an operation, imagine the surgeon saying, "Blood is nice, but it has a limited supply. We're going to switch your blood out with vinegar while you're asleep." My guess is you might cancel the surgery. And see about having that doctor committed.

Wind power sounds nice. But wind farms only work if you have wind. That means that much of the country would need some alternate source of energy during calm periods. Or some honkin' big rechargable batteries. Is that the back range of the Rockies, Cletus? No, Maw, that's the front range of the Duracells.

Solar is great for water heaters, or swimming pools (the largest use of solar, according to today's Wall Street Journal). I moved from Cincinnati back to the sunny south because I have seasonal affected disorder. In layman's terms, I am affected by lack of sunlight. The kind required to get much from solar panels. I saw an estimate that we would need a solar farm larger than the state of Texas to provide a fairly insignificant amount of power.

Nuclear - I include it, in part, just to see if any liberals will hyperventilate. But it is the most efficient and reliable alternative out there. As others have pointed out, even France depends on nuke power. Heavily. But good luck getting that by the eco-warriors.

And to move the power... from any of these sources, the WSJ article mentioned earlier will require tens of thousands of miles of cable to get the power from places where they might be generated to all the folks who need to use it. That will be a budget-buster for sure.

Argument 5: We need to get away from fossil-fuel cars

Alternative fuels - how's that working for you? Like what's going on in the price of corn? Wait until we plow over the state of Iowa in order to produce enough corn to replace something like 10% of the gas used by cars.That will be fun. Oh, and watch the price of beef in the fall. People bailing out of the cattle-and-fowl-as-food industry flooded the market earlier this year, in anticipation of the cost of staying in business. That will lead to shortages in beef and poultry in the next several months. And I'm completely ignoring the food riots in other parts of the world because the American breadbasket (and others) were focusing on gas rather than pedestrians.

Oh, and at the moment, the process of creating ethanol still causes more CO2 than regular gas refining. But don't let that bother you.

Electric cars - I love the purely electric cars currently on the road. Especially when the shriners wear the clown suits while driving them.

But at the moment, electric cars can't go more than 30-ish miles before the juice runs out. That's one way to my office. THat's half-way to the office for many in metro Atlanta, and I know we're not unique among larger towns.

There is also the question of where all that power for all of those electric cars will come from. Let's see, the West Coast, Chicago, and the Northeastern Corridor have rolling brownouts every summer. Seems like we're a little short on electric power already. And I have yet to hear one of the geniuses backing electric cars to recognize that "cheap electric power" will not be so cheap once you and I are totally dependent on it.

And lastly, the projected price of the best thing the electric developers have so far is around $48,000. Granted, the price will drop as new innovations come out; but that can hardly be seen as relief for the common person.

No way around it - the current energy situation is not pretty. But you can not build an energy plan around technologies that only work on the scifi channel. Nor can the average American afford the price to make Obama's dream a reality.