Faster Pushy Cats! Drill! Drill!

Apparently some folks in Virginia still think there's a Santa Claus, and that if we just drill and melt every available square inch, we'll become magically energy independent, whatever and ever, amen.

Such an oil find would be small compared with the estimated 40 billion barrels in the Gulf Coast. The natural gas is more substantial. But both are symbolic of a rare window of opportunity for the energy industry.

Yes. Symbolic. That's really what this is all about, finding the appropriate symbol to reify the can-do spirit of overextending the exurban just-in-time-supply-chain lifestyle we're entitled to, and the profits that the energy industry is entitled to. Doesn't matter what the actual EROEI will be, the extraction techniques we'll be forced to subsidize, the environmental impact, as long as we can still drive our cocks anywhere and everywhere.

That's much easier than driving smaller and smarter, and living within our means. And when was the last time you heard any media folks exhorting that symbolism?