More oil is bad business for the USA. Offshore drilling is a dumb idea.
I believe limited investment in biofuels makes sense purely because of the volume of combustion engines that exist and may continue to be used for a long time yet, but even these are pure dinosaurs.
The future lies in electricity generated from clean technologies including fuel cells, solar, geothermal, wind, hydro, and more solar. Electric motors are far simpler beasts than combustion engines. They are quieter, more efficient, more robust. While there are some technological hurdles, they have a lot going for them.
We need to stop focusing so much on oil. The current oil prices are down, but the respit from pain is not a good reason to hug the barrels. We need to reduce our oil use by 50% by the year 2015 or we risk continuing the current economic cycle that has been going on for more than 60 years.
The new cycle if we get serious about shifting our economy to better technology that requires greater R&D but greater payoffs would be a boon for the next 100 years at the least. Our old way of doing things has a much slower and choppier growth pattern which perpetuates a lot of industries that do more harm than good.
The bottom line is that if you want your children to live in a world with the same old problems (and the over 9000 lb. mutant zoo animal in the room, the melting of the poles) you can choose oil. If you want a better world, there are better choices. I’ve made my decision, personally.