Yesterday Investor’s Business Daily posted an editorial on the recent action of Interior Secretary Ken Salazar to make it more difficult for American companies to produce more oil and gas.  Secretary Salazar announced that he is placing new barriers on the development of America’s oil and gas resources.

The editorial points out:

“Let’s put this in perspective: Since 1859, when the first oil well was drilled in Titusville, Pa., the world has used 1.1 trillion barrels of oil. We have twice that amount locked up in oil shale deposits, mostly on federal lands. By comparison, the current No. 1 in proven oil reserves, Saudi Arabia, has just 266 billion barrels of oil.”

This is not only bad energy policy, it is bad economic policy.  The development of alternative energy sources is a wonderful idea, but it is not here yet.  Until it is, the answer to America’s high cost of energy is very simple–drill, baby, drill.