# Drilling for More Oil Is Not the Solution

*Published:* 2008-06-25
*Author:* Sheryl Canter

![Sheryl Canter](https://blogs.edf.org/climate411/wp-content/blogs.dir/7/files/2008/02/sheryl_canter.jpg)*This post is by Sheryl Canter, an online writer and editorial manager at Environmental Defense Fund.*

Gas prices are sky high, as everybody knows, and the main reason is [increased demand](https://blogs.edf.org/climate411/2008/05/28/why-a-bill-in-2008-its-the-best-answer-to-high-gas-prices/). But the solution is not to resume offshore drilling in the U.S., as the current administration suggests.

Environmental Defense Fund President [Fred Krupp](http://www.edf.org/page.cfm?tagID=870) discussed this issue in a PBS interview last week with Charlie Rose, and again in a [guest post on Grist](http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2008/6/23/14197/7067). Here’s an excerpt from Grist:

> \[W\]e reject the suggestion from the White House that we can drill our way out of our energy problems. Should we drill in ANWR and other environmentally sensitive areas? No, as I clearly stated on the show. Is lifting the ban on offshore drilling the right way to address rising gas prices? No. America holds about three percent of the world’s oil reserves. Bringing it to market would scarcely make a dent in the price of oil, and likely not for decades, according to the Energy Information Administration.
> 
> What we need now are policies that reduce our oil dependence and create incentives for new energy sources that protect the climate. That’s precisely what a cap on global warming pollution will do: cut our oil imports (by as much as $490 billion over the next two decades) and kick start the development of alternatives.