What's wrong with offshore drilling? Yes, GoM events do happen but are very rare. You can't go around being completely risk averse and not doing anything - this is the whole problem with the green ideology. Why not drill the oil and get the tax revenue, bring in the jobs, get a little industry going? This is what the article is about : refusal to let private enterprise get on with making, doing, exporting, building.

As for alternative energy - by all means continue R&D but drop the tax subsidies and using the government to 'pick winners'. The subsidies starve other technologies of capital, funding and attention while prolonging the life of unsuccessful technology. The only way the energy problems are going to be solved is by letting free enterprise innovate and compete to a solution. Governments can't and shouldn't pick winners. Let any energy solution live and die on it's merits.

To me your reply sounds as though you acknowledge the problem (green regulations and intervention) but aren't willing to accept that the solution is to wind it all back and let solutions develop naturally. Green regulations should be restricted to reducing pollution and preserving areas of natural beauty, not stomping on every little use of the earth to provide, and certainly not picking future energy direction. Set the rules of the game, then let private entreprise go and come up with the solutions. Oil will cease to be an issue once better, cheaper alternatives exist.