But she is right. She is hot ;-) Only kidding, the solution is to give states the right to drill offshore and end the ban while also tackling alternative energy. Also, nuclear power can be safe if done smartly.
Score for the Republicans.
Unfortunately Republican leadership is too dumb to look at the other two major factors: alternative energy AND the demand side. Frankly, both parties ignore the demand side too much. Obama is ridiculed when he suggests inflating your tires (which is a sure way to decrease demand).
So score for the Democrats.
If we want to get beyond this stalemate, I think we have got to do all of the above. I would like to see Congress get just one thing major accomplished this decade. They failed on ethics reforms, they failed on immigration, they failed on at least having a balanced budget. They - yes Congress - failed on a major war when authorizing Bush to pre-emptively attack Iraq. I have never seen such a concentration of incompetence in my life.
I can appreciate the politics of splitting the baby, but we ought not to confuse that with smart policy. If letting oil companies drill is the political price for better mileage standards and policies to encourage alternative energy research and development, perhaps I can live with it on that basis.
And I can understand how if affects the national psyche, in general, and the perceptions of the capital and other markets, in particular.
But that doesn't make it smart policy. Even if these offshore drilling fields meet the more optimistic expectations, they are likely to have a limited effect on the price of oil or the balance between supply and demand. Yes, more oil would be available, but it would likely be matched by a commensurate increase in demand. And global warming would continue.
Renewable energy NOW is the smart policy.
As for nuclear, I don't enough about the science, although I do think outside of the economics, waste disposal seems like a thornier problem than safety. Incidents like Chernobyl and TMI aside, I admit to a lay person's confidence in the ability of engineers to design and operate safe systems.