WHY WE NEED TO DRILL HERE AND NOW!

A friend sent me some articles written by Howard Kunstler describing TEOLAWKIOTP... The End Of Life As We Know It On This Planet. Kunstler writes well and with lucidity. He even supports drilling in ANWAR " because I think it can be done in a sanitary way and, more importantly, it would get the idiot cornucopian right-wing assholes to finally shut up about it..."

And that's where I think he is totally wrong. I completely disagree with him about the impact of drilling here (in the Keys. . California.. EVERYWHERE) . I believe that ANYTHING you do to increase supply will quell the speculators.

My analogy is this.. Let's say that we are stranded on an island in a flood. There are 100 people and we have 100 bottles of drinking water. No problem. Now, if there are 110 people and only 100 bottles of drinking water, then we have a BIG problem. We are at the inelastic portion of the demand curve. The perceived value of EVERY bottle will go up immensely. Then, if we suddenly discover another crate with just 12 more bottles, the perceived value of each bottle drops like a stone. No problem. We have to do EVERYTHING we can to increase supply! Every fraction of a step we take down the inelastic portion of the demand curve will have a disproportionate benefit!