Editorial By NATHAN LOTT
Richmond Times-Dispatch

The debate over drilling on federal lands has come home: from the Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge to the coast of Virginia. Record-high oil prices -- fueled in part by a weak dollar and speculation -- led leaders in both parties to backpedal on longstanding commitments not to place oil rigs on the Atlantic coast. Even as economists of all stripes acknowledged that offshore drilling will do nothing to reduce prices at the pump, politicians still wavered. Why? Because we lack a national energy policy that requires more and better energy choices.

America is addicted to oil. We currently spend more than $1 trillion a year on our fossil-fuel addiction, and if we are to believe the rhetoric of Big Oil, the answer to kicking the habit is to drill for more...

Read the entire article

Nathan Lott is the executive director of the Virginia Conservation Network.