Drill, baby, drill?

A cloudy sheen of oil the size of Delaware is consuming the Gulf of Mexico as it inches closer to the New Orleans coastline. Thousands of gallons of oil is spewing from an underwater well after a rig caught fire last week and then collapsed into the murky waters. The ramifications to the wildlife along the coast will be devastating, so the U.S. Coast Guard has decided to light the oil on fire. And it has also ignited new questions about off-shore drilling.

What began as "drill, baby, drill" is turning into "burn, baby, burn" (although this doesn't appear to be a disco inferno).

So, where is Sarah Palin reacting to this man-made disaster? She offered fiery rhetoric at the 2008 Republican National Convention when she worked the crowd into a frenzy that off-shore drilling would be America's salvation for its fossil fuel consumption. She and other Republicans recently chastised President Obama, even though he opened wide swaths for off-shore drilling in the Atlantic Ocean. That decision now appears to be a mistake.

Let me say that I'm not necessarily opposed to off-shore drilling, but I do think the calls of "drill, baby, drill" were ludicrous and short-sighted. Fossil fuels obviously are finite, so rather than drilling for more oil and ripping off mountains to mine more coal, why don't we put all of our energy (literally) into finding new fuel sources that are both renewable and cheap.

Ah, but "green energy" isn't cheap, you say? Well, nothing is cheap in its genesis. It takes years to develop technology and find more affordable ways to link it into our lives. From televisions to computers, things become cheaper over time.

Glenn Beck likes to talk about his 9.12 project, but imagine if we had started a full-tilt green revolution on Sept. 12, 2001? I seriously doubt we would be dealing with a faltering economy and strained diplomatic relations with the Middle East. And I know we wouldn't have idiots like Sarah Palin calling for us to "drill, baby, drill" in the wake of an environmental disaster.