Oil, oil, oil....

Kevin Drum has an excellent post in which he sums up the current oil problem, and why it's different from previous oil problems. Kevin's really good at stripping complex issues down to their essentials, and this is a prime example. And at the end of the post, Kevin leaves off with this:

Liberals can help too. How about a deal that trades ANWR drilling for higher CAFE standards, for example? Sounds horrible, doesn't it? But it might be a politically feasible trade, and in the end the benefit from higher mileage cars probably vastly outweighs the negatives of another pipeline in Alaska. Consider it food for thought.

I think I could get behind this. I really could. Especially if sufficient safeguards for the environmental protection of the undrilled part of ANWR could be written into the law permitting drilling. I have a deep suspicion that we've managed to put off developing new energy sources long enough that there's no way we'll be able to keep ANWR undrilled forever, so if it's gotta happen, let's do it right and make sure we start working on a Plan B for when the oil supply starts to diminish beyond its ability to sustain modern society.

I also recently read "The End of Cheap Oil", an article in this month's National Geographic, which paints a similar picture. And for the people who want to hear a contrarian's take, here's an old WIRED article in which a scientist argues that we're not going to run out of oil anytime soon.