Staff Editorial: 'Round and round we go in the sustainable energy debate

As it has become increasingly apparent that foreign oil will not be able to sustain domestic energy consumption in the future, scientists and foresighted politicians alike have scrambled to find viable alternatives.

Scientists have pointed to clean and renewable energy sources like bio-fuel and wind power as our best hope for environmentally safe and feasible energy production. Politicians and even celebrities have advocated reduced personal energy consumption and waste as a means of alleviating the power crunch.

While we are aware it will take more than pointing and advocacy to wean our nation from Big Oil, we believe that the nation's energy policy should be geared heavily toward renewable energy.

It's disappointing, then, to learn that the U.S. Interior Department has plans to lease millions of acres of offshore fields to major oil companies in a new expansion effort for domestic drilling.

One of the largest new plots is in Alaska's formerly protected Bristol Bay, home to some of the world's most productive salmon habitat and many marine mammals including endangered whales.

Environmental groups, including the Sierra Club, according to The Associated Press, have cited concerns about the deleterious effect of drilling on wildlife.

Beyond these immediate concerns, we must cite concerns about the apparent enthusiasm of Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne over the drilling expansion.

Domestic drilling is no energy solution at all. Rather, it is a delay to the inevitable end of the petroleum supply and a few more notches on the rising global thermometer [HTML_REMOVED] all likely at the expense of other domestic resources.

We hope Congress will move to block the proposal; otherwise drilling will begin in two months.