With gas prices so high, why aren't we drilling in the US? Is anyone else really frustrated with this?

I'm tired of hearing the "Europe has it so much worse, quit whining" crap. If you don't like the gas prices, demand from politicians to do something, riot, boycott, disrupt their phone systems everyday, go buy yourself a biodiesel veggie machine where you can make your own gas from veggie oil. Do something about it. We Americans tend to take action, or use innovation to solve problems rather than just accept it. We need to shut down congress's phone system again and tell them we want to drill for oil NOW. Just like we did with the illegal immigration amnesty issue. We united and put a stop to that. You can thank environmentalists and congress from blocking any progress towards new drilling.

Just the threat will have an impact. We need to develop alternate fuels and build safe nuke plants like the Europeans. We have to start now as yes the libs, Democrats, environmentalists AND Republicans, have screwed us so far. EDIT: I LIKE CHIEF SCOUT"S IDEA. The only problem is boneheads will squeeze all their driving into the 12 hours and we will net nothing. We could ask that Americans decrease their use 10% by planning better. The $4.00 plus gas price is doing that. We drove several Billion miles less in 2007 when gas was $3.00. If everyone just planned better, we could cut consumption by 20% and we would have the effect you describe. I think $5.00 gas would do it. What would Saudi Arabia be worth without the demand for oil? What's the market for camel meat? EDIT RAINA: Good. So does McCain. Build the nukes. And yes your comment is excellant. What dumb a**es let us get in this predicament? Two words: the Gub Ment. Morons. Google the Bakken oil fields or North Dakota oil fields. Between Prudhoe bay in Alaske, The Bakken field, the western slope of the Rockies, particularly Wyoming and the Gulf of Mexico, we have 60 to 200 years of oil and gas at our presant rate of consumtion and the expected increase, but the time is wasted if we do not develope altenate fuels. The water car, actually it burns hydrogen extracted from water, is fairly simple to make. Hydrogen is volitale but so is gas and we can develope safe ways to handle it. The Arabs worst nighmare is alternative energy. We've had the technology for years and it has been suppressed. I think the internet will finally get it out and it will be developed. Anyone care for a camel sandwich? Tastes like chicken.

The Bakken formation is oil shale, not oil. And some of the links you provided apparently made up their numbers, because the USGS and others do not make anything like the claims in your links.

In any event, oil shale is not the same as oil. It is takes a lot longer and is a lot more expensive than drilling oil.

The bottom line is that including Alaska the USA's proved oil reserves are about 20 billion barrels...which is nothing. Even if we made domestic oil production a national priority tomorrow, the amount of oil produced would be trivial in the greater scheme of things. It might drop the price a few cents a gallon.

What should frustrate people is that government and industry ignored this inevitable oncoming crisis for decades but encouraged Americans to be profligately wasteful with their gas anyhow.

Our oil reserves are minimal as compared to our needs. It would be wiser to use the time and high prices as a motivation to get our act together on using alternative fuel sources. The oil in Alaska is not going anywhere. We will always have it as a reserve but if we tap it now, were S*** Out of Luck in the future when we might need it more.

Let's use up all of the Arab oil and save ours for later

What I want to know is why is it that I can be driving past 2 gas stations and station X is 5 cents higher than station Y across the street. I think gas stations are allowed to play God with prices. Then there are towns like mine who pass a gas tax. I go a distance of 39 miles each week and am amazed at the BP Connect chains along the way. One charges several cents more than it's sister a couple blocks away. I think someone literally isn't minding the store. My mom and I combine our resources and use 1 car-a Honda-they're great on gas mileage.

Domestic OIL exploration and drilling won't solve the problem of high gasoline prices. Do you really believe that the OIL companies are going to reduce their gasoline prices ever again?

Example: the price of crude has gone DOWN in the past few days. Have the prices at the pump gone DOWN?? No.

But, if the price of crude goes UP, the price at the pump goes UP immediately.

As long as the OIL companies have us 'hooked' on OIL, they aren't about to take gasoline prices back down to $2.00 or $1.00 a gallon. It ain't gonna happen.

So if you want a 'solution', why not try all or any of the following:

a) Encourage the development of alternative fuels;

b) Stop driving gas-guzzling SUVs and Hummers;

c) REduce, REuse, and REcycle everything - from paper, plastic, vegetable oil, cardboard, wood, asphalt, glass, aluminum cans and all other recyclables. It all helps reduce energy costs;

d) Start planning your trips to use less gasoline;

e) Use more public transportation or ride mopeds and bicycles - or why not try walking to work or school;

f) Drive smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicles;

g) Stop using plastic plates, Styrofoam cups, and other materials that are petroleum-based;

h) Car pool;

i) Refuse to buy all the plastic junk available at WalMart for 'low prices - everyday' - almost all of which is made from petroleum-based plastics and aren't 'necessary' purchases.

Americans - and the rest of the world - must begin to practice energy conservation. We've squandered our planet's natural resources for far too long.

If we drill for more oil, we'll simply squander more of it.

We absolutely must learn to conserve - and that requires sacrifice on everyone's part. -RKO- 05/29/08

Get used to it, prices aren't going back to the good old days.

The idea is to get off fossil fuels and into alternatives, not rip up the seas and wildlife corridors to satisfy our cravings for large cars and SUVs.

If the US does drastically increase drilling (for that's what it will take to make any difference) who do you think will be doing the drilling and refining and making even more huge profits. The same major oil companies that are gouging you now.

We are huge consumers of oil and now that countries like India and China are developing a middle class, they too will be needing oil. To go into our reserves, and into our parks and national forests, is not going to solve the problem. There is a finite amount of oil. Instead, we need to come up with options and alternatives. We need to be more conservative (SUVs at 12 miles per gallon for example are silly) as well as look for alternative fuel sources.

Politicians that are full of excuses ( personal opinion)

There has not been a refinery built in decades , there has been a lot of oil exported and drilling (supposedly) would take 20 years to show results.......... that is the same excuse that Congress gave 20+ years ago but hey when the American public buys it why think of something new.

We got way to many stupid environmentalists that wont let people drill for oil. From what I have been hearing, Alaska has as much oil as the middle east. Environmentalists wont let us drill in Alaska because they think it will do harm to nature even though poler bear population has been growing in Alaska. Poler bear population has been growing because of the heat from the oil drills that we do have in Alaska.