Why drill in the Artic Wildlife Refuge?

If the country in control of oil resources maintains a position of dominance in the world due to the mobility of their armed forces, what will happen to the (currently dominant) countries reluctant to develop alternative sources of energy when mass quantities of oil are no longer available?

Is it feasible that a country or group of countries (EU) can alter the strategic balance of world power by simply ramping up their investment and involvement in the development of cheap, re-useable energy?

It is extremely chilling to think about the possible ramifications of our current foreign policy when we no longer have the ability to move our armies throughout the world. We can only hope and pray that no other group of leaders will ever be as small-minded, self-centered, corrupt or greedy as those currently orchestrating the social downward spiral we have come to know as uniquely American.

Even though it is senseless to blog around in panicked circles, it makes a lot of sense to stay somewhat informed, which you can do by reading the article below.


The Energy Crunch to Come
By Michael T. Klare
TomDispatch

(Excerpt)

Today, the concept of global peak oil is widely accepted in the energy field, though debate rages over when this moment will actually occur. Those who believe that oil supplies are abundant tend to put this date far in the future, well beyond our immediate concern. The DoE, for example, noted in its International Energy Outlook for 2004 that it expects "conventional oil to peak closer to the middle than to the beginning of the 21st century." But other analysts are not so sanguine. "It is my opinion that the peak will occur in late 2005 or in the first few months of 2006," says Princeton geologist Kenneth S. Deffeyes in a new book, Beyond Oil. A more conservative estimate by Mike Rodgers of PFC Energy locates the peak somewhere in the vicinity of 2010-2015. If either of these predictions proves accurate, global oil supply can never climb high enough to satisfy the elevated consumption levels projected by the DoE for 2025 and beyond.