On Feb. 25, 2012, President Obama made his weekly address to the country. The main topic of conversation this week was rising gas prices. As in previous years, rumors are spreading that eventually we will reach $5 per gallon for gas. Obama wanted to assure Americans that drilling for oil by the U.S. is not the answer – however, he is not entirely right. He is correct in that drilling is not a permanent solution to our energy problems, but then again, the same is true about not drilling.  The fossil fuels that we currently rely on will run out sometime down the road, but until then it is much better to use our own supply than to be reliant on other, less stable options.

President Obama talks a lot about developing new “greener” energy sources to power our country, but he neglects to address the immediate problem of energy consumption. I agree that new energy sources, specifically nuclear, need to be developed, but there are several issues that first must be overcome before this is feasible. First and foremost, the economics need to be there. Many options that Obama pushes are too expensive, too inefficient, or both. We have yet to develop anything that can, on its own, compete economically with a gas-powered vehicle. The one type of “green” energy that can compete with fossil fuels is nuclear power, but the cost of adapting the principles of fission to consumer vehicles is still far too great. I have no doubt that eventually someone will come up with an economical and environmentally friendly way to power our vehicles, but until then we need to rely on gasoline.

Since we are still far from transitioning from a gas-powered car industry to something better, it makes sense to take advantage of our own oil reserves rather than importing. The U.S. currently imports over 50 percent of the oil that it consumes; this number could be substantially reduced if we opened up our oil reserves, specifically those in the Gulf. Despite the controversy surrounding drilling in the Gulf, the U.S. allows other countries to drill offshore there. Not only would it be safer for the U.S. to do the drilling, it would also drastically reduce the amount of oil we would need to import annually.

The American people need to make it clear to President Obama that we are tired of the same old rhetoric he uses to push green energy. In a perfect world, the U.S. would shift completely from fossil fuel to cleaner sources, but this simply isn’t feasible yet. Unfortunately, in our current economic state we cannot afford to pretend to live in a perfect world, and it is time that President Obama realized this.