The arctic wildlife refuge has now been opened for drilling. The oil companies have already said it will not effect the high cost of oil or gasoline.

Is that because most of the oil that comes out of Alaska goes to the far east instead of coming down here.

I think the only reason to drill it would be if it helped the US.

This is pitiful. We need to be spending our money developing effective, well-priced hydrogen fuel cell options for our energy needs. We need to do it not only to reduce our dependence on the Arab countries for oil, but because fossil fuels aren't clean and there is a finite amount of it in the earth. I don't foresee a shortage of hydrogen any time soon.

It sounds like the first step down a very slippery slope for the environment.
We have people here who collect the oil from fast food places and make it into fuel for their cars, if a university student can do it imagine what a team of the world`s best scientists could come up with. But then again, profit is always king.

It is; and I don't see Bush angering the big oil companies.

He wouldn' Its not about the oil or about the price of gas. They don't want the price to come down. They don't care about foreign oil dependency. Its about the money and how much can be made. If they could make as much on orange juice bet there would be a shortage of that.

Years ago I read an article either in the old OMNI magazine or in Discover magazine. (before disney bought it and dumbed it down to the point of a cartoon). The Article was by a geologist who had a theory that oil does not come from dinosaurers. But instead it comes from the center of the earth. As we know the center of the earth is simply one gigantic factory where all the minerals we have were made.
I didn't pay much attention at the time until last fall I talked to a friend that works the oil fields in Texas and the southern us. He said they cann't explain it but old oil wells in Texas and other places that were sucked dry long ago are filling up again.

They know it is not draining from tar sands or unknown pools. But they cann't explain where it is coming from. He also said the powers in the gov. and oil industry are scared. Their house of cards is about to crash down on their heads.

I've spent the last few months trying to find the article without any luck.

I hope someone has a herd of dinosaurs somewhere just in case.
I do hope all the old "dry" wells fill back up. The high prices will send them looking.