According to Monday’s Investor’s Business Daily the country of Brazil is going to expand offshore drilling as well as continue to lead in biofuels.  Brazil understands the concept that energy independence is a part of prosperity and economic growth.  The article recommends that we in the United States learn from the Brazilian example.  Offshore drilling would probably end the financial crisis in California within a year.  There are areas of the California coast where there is so much oil available that it is seeping up through the ground naturally.  The US Department of Interior has a website which talks about this phenomenon, see seepage.  Why not simply grab the oil and refine it?

We need to remember that reasonable prices of energy are not guaranteed.  We have learned this a number of times over the past thirty years.  Developing our own sources of energy makes sense financially and as a security measure.  Anytime the price of oil and gas has gone down, it goes right back up as soon as we get used to its being low.  We need our own sources of energy.