Not in it for the long haul.

The left and its trained monkeys in the enviromental movement never fail to amaze me with their inconsistency.

Take drilling for oil in Anwar or offshore, for example.

There are no, none, no instances of pollution from existing wells on the North Slope or in the Western Gulf of Mexico, even with two major storms - Katrina and Rita - blowing through in the last few years. There were problems with the refineries. But not with the drilling rigs and towers in the Gulf. In fact, we have had more problems with crude oil shipped into our ports on tankers from other countries.

So, since they can't stop the growing movement to self-sufficiency through homeland drilling, they resort to the specious argument that it won't have any effect on oil availability and prices for a decade or more.

If you know anything about futures markets you know that it is not true; the prospect of new oil fields will cause speculators, hedgers and futures buyers to reduce their activities out of concern that increased supply will at some time turn prices lower. Holders of high cost contracts will start to exercise stop loss selling. This will bring down futures prices and prices at the pump.

But assuming that it may be 10 or more years before we feel the real impact of the drilling, why should we not go ahead anyway, to get there and be there in the future?

Cigarettes won't kill smokers for years. Why should they quit now? Why not wait until death knocks on the door to quit. Stopping now will not have a result for decades.

Similarly, we are told that global warming (or global climate change, depending on whether the temperature is cold today or hot) will lead to disaster with extensive flooding caused by rising seas and the destruction agriculture as the average temperature creeps up. But why do anything about it now. Switching to ethanol, replacing light bulbs, driving slower, creating solar power grids will not have significant impact the alleged problem for decades, maybe generations.

Why change now when we won't see any difference until down the road?

Can the leftvironmental movement not see that the acting now is important to affect the future? Or do they just not care if it doesn't match their agenda for punishing their fellow Americans, damaging the economy and indulging their hatred for free enterprise.