We Americans are smarter than our government leaders give us credit for. We all know that we cannot solve the energy crisis and certainly not the climate crisis by drilling for more oil.

Big Oil, their cronies in Congress, and the Bush Administration are exploiting the pain we are feeling at the pump by touting drilling as a solution, even though they know drilling will not lower prices at the pump.

Big Oil wants you to believe that drilling is a quick fix, when the reality is that the Department of Energy has said that any new drilling will have no effect on gas prices now, and an “insignificant” effect on gas prices 15 to 20 years from now.

The U.S. uses 25 percent of the world’s oil supply, but holds only 2.6 percent of the world’s oil reserves. No matter how much we drill, we could never provide consumers with real relief.

Rather than being fed the false claim that drilling will lower gas prices, Americans need real choices, like cars with better fuel efficiency, tax incentives for riding mass transit and telecommuting, and consumer rebates funded by repealing billions in tax breaks for Big Oil.

Oklahoma oilman T. Boone Pickens even said, “I’ve been an oil man all my life, but this is one emergency we can’t drill our way out of.”

Join me in telling our government leaders that we want real, sustainable solutions to our energy and climate crisis!