My last couple of posts all revolved around alternative energy. In all the discussions about how to break our dependence on oil, two recurring themes became most evident: 1) the energy has to come from somewhere and that there are no perfect solutions and 2) it will be a few years before any of it could possibly be brought to market.

What can we rely on until then? Well, there’s oil and then there’s … uh … oil?

And so, with relatively few options, we have to find a short term solution while the long term solutions are being developed. That solution is fairly obvious to everyone: We need to drill.

Where? Wherever. More precisely: everywhere.

Lifting the ban on offshore drilling would be a good start. Authorizing drilling in ANWR would be a good start. Encouraging our allies to increase production would be a good start. Increasing the minimum fuel efficiency on new vehicles would help.  Imposing a moratorium on new oil and natural gas plants would help, after all there are just to many things we need oil for, and alternative sources are cheaper anyway.  Legislation requiring anyone who purchased an oil commodity to take delivery of it wouldn’t increase our supply or decrease our demand, but it would pop the bubble of speculation and reduce our price at the pump.

The bottom line is we need to get moving on addressing energy prices as soon as possible. If we were to enact legislation to accomplish everything I’ve suggested tomorrow, it would still be years till anything substantive changed about our energy situation. Every day we hold off attacking this problem from every possible direction is another day we’re going to suffer the pain of prices that are higher than they need to be.

We are dependent on foreign oil. That dependence makes us weak. We are spending more on energy than we need to be. That spending makes our economy weak. We have to do everything we can as soon as we can.