Congress misses chance to cut oil dependence

As Rome burned, Nero fiddled away. As the price of oil continues to rise, Congress fiddles away.

The wilderness of the north slope of Alaska is known to contain large quantities of petroleum, as are offshore sites to our east, south and west. They likely would not satisfy our entire need, but they certainly would increase the world supply and put downward pressure on the price of oil and its derivatives. These new sources, along with the Canadian output, would make us less dependent on oil from the volatile and monopolistic Middle East supply.

Yet our Congress continues to play politics by predicting environmental gloom as those cruel and greedy oil companies pillage the environment. Incidentally, Congress reaps as much profit from gasoline as the oil companies (6 percent) with no investment at risk.

I believe that all three of the top candidates for president have spoken out against drilling in these sites. I think most Americans would agree that we ought to pursue these resources while we simultaneously pursue market-driven conservation technologies.

Congress, stop fiddling around.