Yes, but even crack addicts need to be weened off of it. If you shut if off immediately you've got problems. Look at the countries infrastructure. Its built on oil. Even if they developed a fuel that can replace oil overnight it would still take years to convert the infrastructure over to something else.
other such stuff
The thing is, I'm not advocating shutting anything off, I'm advocating spending the money on alternative fuels that are more efficient, more sustainable and cleaner. What problem, exactly is solved by lower gas prices? Is it our inflation? Nope, because the Euro is freakishly strong despite absurdly high gas prices (that puts ours to shame). It is the convenience of driving for the thrill of it and it is also a bit of a burden on the lower classes. When would the money come in from drilling off-shore? Not for many years. How long do you think that the oil companies would need to keep the rates jacked up to pay off an oil rig? And the volume would be such a minute amount that it wouldn't have a very large impact. Hell, according to your article we produce 164k Barrels/mo already (and import another 264) and that doesn't seem to be helping the prices. Would our oil production triple (answer is no. It wouldn't even double, it would simply be increased).
I don't mean to imply (though I realize I did) with my rhetoric that making money is a bad thing, it's wonderful and good for them and all of that, but it's an industry that is bad for the earth, bad for our health and relies extensively on exploitative practices for its profit. It is absolutely necessary but instead of looking for temporary relief (for monetary reasons) and INCREASING the amount of oil we consume (because the reason gas prices go up is to cut back on the amount of gas people use by making it too cost prohibitive--since they don't have enough to keep up with our current expansion rate), we need to seek alternative methods and DECREASE our consumption. The only reason people have become so magnanimous in their gushing over green technology is because their wallets are hurting--just like the 1970's and if we inject a temporary fix with an influx of gas (I mean, it's not like we're freakishly low on reserves in a war or anything) then people will forget about it and continue increasing consumption and further screwing OUR health with pollutants and further pushing the earths demise--just like we did after the oil crises.
~Jason