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Is Oil a Bubble? Part 3

The author writes "I am not one to completely ignore the environment either. However, I have read that Louisiana, where many of our drilling and refineries are located, is one of the top areas for fisheries, and that the fish have thrived amid the drilling infrastructure."

Jordan: Good article, but you're radically off base here. Fish in the Gulf may be thriving, but any human concerned about health shouldn't be eating them. Gulf fish and seafood are loaded with toxic chemicals and heavy metals, thanks largely to the oil development in the area.

In contrast, the waters of Alaska are still pristine (save where residual oil sludge from the Exxon Valdez still permeates the beaches of Prince William Sound), and the salmon produced here are some of the healthiest food produced on this planet. Out salmon runs are thriving, too -- unlike the salmon of the West Coast and most of the rest of the world, which have been annihilated by industrial development. Drilling for oil in ANWR or Bristol Bay would most certainly be the first phase of the destruction of Alaska's healthy wild ecosystems.

I want to profit from my energy stocks as much as anyone, and besides I benefit from Alaska's annual oil permanent fund dividend -- to say nothing of the absence of a state income or sales tax -- but I live here because the air is clean, the wild food is pure, the wilderness is close at hand and the quality of life is so high most of the rest of the world can't even conceive of it. I don't want our addiction to an obsolete, environmentally destructive and politically suicidal oil industry to continue devastating my home or the rest of the planet. It's time to start thinking outside the box and develop our vast renewable energy resources. They can be the foundation of an economy much stronger and more stable than our current oil-dependent house of cards.