So, Scot, I see you and the self-proclaimed environmental activists over at ONE WISCONSIN, NOW DAMN YOU! are using the oil spill in the Gulf as an opportunity to bash business once again, and to push for a Luddite-inspired, pre-Industrial Revolution, horse-and-buggy/windmill economy. But in your bashing of all things oil you failed to mention the no-bid contract the Obama administration just gave Halliburton, or the fact tha Obama was the top recipient of BP PAC and individual money over the past 20 years. I could call it hypocrisy, but I'll be nice and refer to it as "selective outrage."

What happened in the Gulf of Mexico is exactly what happens when businesses are allowed, as they were under the GOP’s decades-long deregulation orgy, to provide their own watchdog over the operations. It is beyond obscene that a simple piece of equipment that would cost $500,000 and prevented this volcano of oil from destroying the already ravaged Gulf Coast was shunned by the profit motives of BP. Responsible energy policy isn’t in the solar system of Luddite; it’s the future, and it’s our only chance to stop man-made global climate change. For conservatives, I ask: Is it oil profits you’re trying to protect, or are you simply opposed to anything big business isn't full-throatedly endorsing?

I didn't say BP was free of blame for one simple reason: We don't know what happened yet. But as far as stopping man-made climate change ... how do you stop something that has yet to be proven to exist? It would be like trying to devise a strategy to stop a fiscally responsible budget from Barack Obama or Jim Doyle.  Back to the black death in the Gulf. We could stop all domestic offshore drilling tomorrow, and that would only push this economy into a tailspin and send energy prices soaring. Other countries (like Vietnam and Angola, for crying out loud) will still be drilling for oil. I'd rather not have to rely on their oil or their safety standards, thank you very much.

Brian, I know you're still clinging to the wild-eyed conspiracies of climate change denier (and birther nut) Lord Monckton, but whether you believe man-made climate change is real, the spill in the Gulf demonstrates the danger of protecting the status quo in our energy policy. BP, Exxon and their fossil-fuel-funded-front groups like Americans for Prosperity have resisted real change in energy policy for years -- putting our national security, our pocketbooks and now 1,680 miles of coastline at risk for the sake of protecting the tens of billions in profits pulled down by Big Oil each year. It's more than a little ironic that the architects of the Tea Party are virtually silent now that 200,000 gallons a day of Texas Tea is erupting into and befouling the Gulf.

You offer the false choice of no drilling or status quo.  Personally, I support the "Drill, Baby, Drill" and everything else plan. Let's build some damn nuke plants while we're at it.  We should be pursuing all domestic sources we know exist; that includes the oil Gulf of Mexico, ANWR in Alaska and public lands in the Dakotas and elsewhere. And we should invest in creating new technologies and exploring new sources of energy that make economic sense. Scot, how is our national security improved if we fail to tap into the resources we have here and instead are beholden to foreign government cartels like OPEC?  How is our economic security improved if we abandon oil and coal and instead rely totally on the more expensive, less reliable and less efficient solar and wind?  I can't speak for anyone else, but I'm obviously not silent about this. The incident in the Gulf is a tragedy, but it shouldn't scare us away from the natural resource that is oil. I thought PROGRESS was the root of progressive? Why the call for retreat?

The big oil companies and coal producers have used their political influence and vast wealthy to stymie development of alternative fuel sources basically since the creation of the internal combustion engine. As long as our national discourse relies on the talking points of Big Oil, arguments like destroying ANWR for at most several months worth of the American oil consumption are going to actually seem reasonable. Fortunately, younger Americans are absolutely committed to the cause of renewable and more sustainable ways of living. I will say you seem to be one of the few conservatives still willing to echo the GOP braintrust of Michael Steele and Sarah Palin’s “Drill, Baby, Drill.” Hats off to you for intellectual honesty. Others in the conservative movement have been enormous hypocrites and are now backpedaling, a point One Wisconsin Now made with our most recent video, which you can check out here.