Energy Policy/Drilling Policy

I spend a lot of my time saying don't drill here, don't drill there, don't drill yet, save it for when we really need it.

But what should our policy be?  We need a general plan so that we can be prepared for when our energy situation gets out of hand.   Setting up oil rigs is energy intensive in itself.  And if wait too late, we might not have the resources to get additional drilling up and running.

I still think it is too early to get started.  I don't want to see more oil wasted away on SUVs and suburban sprawl.  But how long would it take to get something up and running?  If it takes 10 years to get something up and running and we are currently 15 years away from when things will really get bad, then we can wait a few more years.

The problem is that I have no clue on either of those, I just randomly chose those two numbers.  ASPO (The Association for the Study if Peak Oil), has a much better sense of these numbers, but no one knows for sure.  They may not know for sure, but they know enough to scare me.