Offshore drilling is not a long-term solution, does nothing to limit pollution, and poses a risk of serious environmental harm. While it is true that Americans have made some effort to cut back on their energy usage, the full potential for efficiency and conservation has hardly begun to be realized. Despite all of the talk about "going green", large new SUVs keep selling (albeit less rapidly) and massive TV sets have practically become the norm. TheState.com recently reported that luxury SUV sales are still doing rather well, which reflects the fact that some people will waste energy as long as they can afford it.

In cold climates, builders continue to construct homes which receive little or no heating benefit from the sun. Manufacturing shifts offshore unabated, despite the efficiency implications of shipping products around the world. More and more devices consume electricity even when they are turned "off", ranging from coffee makers to DVD players and digital TV converter boxes. Passenger railway services remain limited and many residential areas are almost impossible to live in without a vehicle. It would be difficult to estimate how much energy has been depleted running military equipment in Iraq or rebuilding that nation's destroyed infrastructure.

Using the Internet consumes a great deal of electricity, and is another area where serious efficiency has been largely overlooked. Slow advertisement-laden websites with unnecessary and redundant code have become more common. Such websites cause both the user and the server's hard drives to consume more electricity and need replacement sooner. Meanwhile, most software manufacturers no longer try to maximize efficiency with existing equipment, instead pressuring users to buy new computers - which often use more energy and have to be shipped from factories in east Asia.

Businesses, individuals, and the government could be doing much more to bring about serious energy efficiency - which decreases expenses, dependency, and pollution at the same time. Offshore drilling could take years to produce a benefit and the oil would be quickly consumed, whereas greater efficiency will make alternative energy more viable and help prepare us for the eventual depletion of oil supplies.