Oil just dropped to 38 bucks a barrel. I am willing to bet that 10 years from now, most of the public land and waters leased in the last two years are sitting idle with no wells on them.
Wow, almost back to where it was when we went into Iraq. Finally.
I don't recall being energy independent before we went into Iraq, however.
As to drill here/ now, I think it is a matter of states rights. Alaska and Texas might vote yes, California would pretty certainly vote no. States are ALLOWED to have different priorities.
If we get rid of oil subsidies (govt interfering in the markets) the price would rise anyhow based not only on scarcity but on the reletive price benefit of alternative fuels, making a much more even playing field for developing alternate fuels. Government should not meddle in markets and perpetuation of petroleum as the primary fuel is one of the results of that meddling.
I believe we will still pursue this because we need to wean ourselves from the dependence on the middle east. That place is going to be the start of WW3.