Sorry,
I haven't looked on the forums for a few days.
Couple things to point out:
The oil found was not in Alaska (if that is what was being inferred), it was found in the Arctic, and several countries will try to lay claim to it. I think the article's comments mentioned something about Russia making a move there. There are several other countries (towards the end of the article) that have sovereignty in that region.
Environmentalists are not the only factor causing the hike in gas prices. There are other things to consider here. The attempts to regulate the oil companies in the early 2000s, which congress had thought would help keep gas prices down, but instead did the opposite. Sorry I dont have a cited source on this statement (kinda heard by word of mouth).
And Also the developing countries of China and India. Not to long ago, they both have come up with cars that are more affordable for the average (i.e. poor) person to be able to buy. Although this is great for their countries, it rises the demand in oil. India (i think) is drilling for oil off their shores and we're buying some of that supply.
Also, there is NO way we as a nation could get off our dependency of oil in a year. You need to consider that we as a nation use petroleum based fuels in many things besides our cars. Things like Aviation fuel, tar, ashpalt, etc...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petroleum#Uses
There isnt enough alternative power sources for us to get off oil dependency. Sure we could blame environmentalists again for preventing us from building things: Oil Drilling, Nuclear power, etc... But when it comes down to it, it also for the most part is our industrial/commercial mentality.
The car companies have catered to the American consumer mentality for many years: Big powerful, gas guzzling, Cars and SUVs. There had been no effort into looking into an alternative fuel source for cars for many decades before we came to this gas price crisis. Why change things around when car companies were making great profits? And now the American car companies are struggling, on the brink of bankruptcy.
If we were to attack our dependence on oil like it were a war (ww1 ww2) we could get rid of our dependence on foreign oil.
during ww2, we could build Liberty SHIPS in 4 days. if we were to attack the foreign oil porblem like we attacked the problems in ww1 and ww2, imo we could be off foreign oil in a year.
Not exactly sure what you're trying to say here. Building a Liberty ship has nothing to do with oil dependency. Also would be a bit insightful if you could share how you have come to the opinion of we can get off oil in a year. Attacking problems like we did in WWII doesnt say much, other than declaring war on several worldly powers.
Also we live in a more modern time where most of our politics are being handled in a more diplomatic way, instead of just declaring war to solve our problems. Yes Yes, I'm sure someone will say "...well what about the war in Iraq, etc.. etc..."
and I could counter "...Well we tried many many times to get Saddam to comply, blah blah...". A conversation I wouldnt want to get into, to be honest.
Thats all i have to say for now