you want to maintain the Atlantic coast. Contact every member - not just Va's representatives and let them know your position.

So where did the 20 gallons of fuel come from -- to support the drive from NOVA to VB, just for this presser?

By the way, aren't you the one who's saying the answer to US energy problems is more oil and gas production?  Hmmmm....

It used to be that progressives cared about the economic health of families -- as Mark Warner, Jim Webb and Tim Kaine do -- high energy prices and increasing reliance on foreign energy are:

(1) driving up the cost of living for those who can least afford it

(2) the direct result of left-sponsored government policies to prohibit the use of nukes or coal for electricity production, thereby increasing reliance on natural gas for same (increasing demand)

(3) the direct result of left-sponsored moratoria on domestic energy production, including off our coasts (depressing supply)

(4) sending more young Americans into harm's way in the Middle East and elsewhere, to "preserve stability" or "fight terrorism" as code words for "keep energy supplies safe."

There needs to be a dose of realism among the left that we cannot just conserve our way out of the present situation -- there needs to be more of that, and more R&D into alternatives, but there is no single silver bullet.  We need to increase our domestic supply to give us a bridge to an alternative energy future.

There are "green" groups who recognize this.  Those on the left who ignore the real and immediate economic plight of families and seniors will -- sooner or later -- pay for it at the ballot box.

1. Oil prices are high because of rapidly increasing world oil demand, plus a nearly vertical supply curve.  How on earth you connect that to progressives is utterly beyond me.

2. That's completely untrue.  Nuclear power is constrained almost entirely because of its economics, that's it.  Coal-fired plants are booming around the world at a rapid rate.  Yeah, natural gas is used for power genaration and heating, so your point is....???

3. This gets tiresome to explain, but if you don't believe me, go talk to a petroleum geologist about how the United States is a mature oil province.  In other words, there's very little oil to be had off our coasts, and what oil there IS to be had is largely being produced in the Gulf of Mexico.  Regarding opposition to offshore drilling, that's pretty much bipartisan; I'd remind you that Jeb Bush was fierce opponent of drilling off Florida's coasts.

4. Exactly, that's why we need to get off of oil, and the only way to do that is to slash oil consumption.  Conceptually, this isn't difficult.

Now, as far as "realism" is concerned, the lack of reality is most definitely on the Republican side, with its denial of global warming, its obsession with more fossil fuel production as the answer to everything, and its apparent disregard for any concern over our coasts, fisheries, etc.  Personally, I favor a mix of massive energy efficiency gains, reductions in the large-scale government subsidies that now implicitly or explicitly encourage sprawl, renewable energy, and nuclear power.  What's unrealistic about that, and who's talking about a "silver bullet."  Not me, that's for sure.

1. You are right about rising world oil demand.  We now have more competitors for the foreign supply we thought we controlled.

2. You need to de-link oil and natural gas (although their prices are linked in the market); the former truly has a world market -- the latter does not (yet) at least in North America.  Largely, we produce what NG we consume.

3.  NG demand from electric generation has increased tremendously since the 1990s Clean Air Act amendments -- and so have prices.  The correlation is almost completely linear.

4.  Jeb was not a fiercely opposed as you might think -- he supported a 100-mile limit.

Finally, I have talked to petroleum geolgists, and I've only met one who did not think there is great potential off the Atlantic and Alaskan coasts.

I have never heard anyone talk about anything like another Saudi Arabia, or even another Kuwait, in Alaska and along our coasts.

I think Tim Kaine should work on making the fleet of Virginia vehicles more Hybrid or flex fuels, I mean the more we can get off oil as a commonwealth, the less we will have to worry about people keeping pushing the 'We need more oil' screed.