Vermilion Oil Rig 380 on fire and leaking

Yet another rig has blown. Initial reports said the rig wasn't drilling at the time of the explosion. Now we know it was drilling....and is now leaking. All 13 crew members rescued. One injury. This begs, again, the question of why are we out there?

Our own Bakken reserve has more oil than all of Saudi Arabia from beginning to end...but we aren't allowed to drill it because of environmental restrictions. So, we push oil rigs into deep water and when (not if) an accident occurs...it's 5,000ft deep where pressures are 2000 lbs per square inch. Sure would be easier to deal with if it were on a plain in North Dakota where we could get to it. In January 1991, 700 oil rigs in Kuwait were blown up. By November, all the rigs had been extinguished and capped. The Deep Water Horizon blew on April 20th and is still leaking. One rig - 4 months and counting. The Bakken reserve would allow us to sever all dependency on foreign oil while we work towards alternative energy. All while mitigating the environmental risks that we are currently facing in deep water. To give you perspective...the test depth of our latest Seawolf class attack submarine is only 2,000ft. A few atmospheric suits can go to 2000ft. Only our DSRV (Deep Sea Rescue Vehicle) can go 5,000ft. We are drilling in a place that exceeds our technical ability to fix when something goes wrong.

It doesn't matter if you are on the right or the left. Common sense dictates this: We must have energy. How do we get it while exposing ourselves to the least risk? We are in the worst possible position for a country. We are risking our environment at depths we cannot reach. We are dependent upon oil-producing nations who wish to kill us on religious grounds. We are so far in debt, our grandchildren will be paying the note. Our economy is in the toilet. Want to solve all the above? Institute a stimulus program that opens the Bakken reserve, exploits nuclear power, put Americans back to work actually producing something. Cut our dependence on foreign oil. Terrorists wallets will dry up. We will be managing wells within a technical level that we can economically handle.