E.J. Dionne on Gore's Energy Policy

Let me say that I like Gore a whole lot more as environmental activist than I did as politician. He seems to like the job a whole lot better (hey, if he had seemed half at ease with himself in 2000 as he does now, I doubt if the election would have been as close as it was).

Dionne devoted his column on Friday to Gore's Thursday speech. A lot of good points made but for me these two paragraphs hit the hardest:

And promises that more offshore drilling will magically bring down prices are not backed by the evidence. "We have been drilling for more oil, and the prices have gone up," Gore said in the interview. "A lot more oil has been found, a lot more has been produced."

In his speech, Gore uttered the disturbing truth that "the exploding demand for oil, especially in places like China, is overwhelming the rate of new discoveries by so much that oil prices are almost certain to continue upward over time no matter what the oil companies promise."

We need a better energy policy than what we have had handed us by the Republicans. Without a better energy policy, the economy is going to suffer (like it isn't already?) and then we become an insecure nation.