I would love to hear from someone who believes this is the answer. I fully understand that solar, wind, and other renewables can't create enough energy today for independence, but if we are talking about long term independence, offshore drilling is certainly not the answer.

No, offshore drilling is certainly not the only way to reach energy independence, but there are two problems to solve here: our reliance on fossil fuels, and the fact that most of the fossil fuels come from a part of the world that is, at least in part, politically unstable and ideologically opposed to American hegemony. We need to take any steps we can to source our energy ourselves, to take control over our energy supply and prices, and disconnect our economy from the whims of the super-rich in Dubai.

with a caveat that the increase in domestic oil production does not curtail our energy spending and the revenue produced is reinvested into research into renewable energy technologies.

While offshore drilling will alleviate some of the short-term (ie 5-10 years) reliability on foreign energy, I think it behooves us to find alternative methods of "powering" our globe. As a result of our haste to jump into energy independence, we may be overlooking major accomplishments in science which will only aid in energy independence for our globe. It would be nice to say that energy is free, globally, and until we start thinking in those macro terms, our shortsightedness will only allow for more conflict than good on an international scale. Having seen some of the recent programs by Discovery Project Earth, I am encouraged by the scientific discoveries being made in the realm of energy collection and wish more funds and insight could be put into these programs in order to deem them viable alternatives or not.

It can't hurt to diversify, especially when the question specifies energy "independence".

ok i clicked on disagree before I really thought about it. Even though we need to find alternatives to fossil fuels, we are still going to be dependent on them for a few decades. Given that we have our own untapped oil supply AND that the price of oil will inevitably rise as supplies elsewhere diminish and the cost of new oil exploration rises, it seems like a no-brainer to me that we will need to tap into our own supplies in order to protect ourselves from an international market whose demand is starting to increase exponentially.