If we do not want Chevron to follow, Chevron's shareholders must demand the same protections provided here in California -- a moratorium on offshore drilling -- be provided nationally and, if possible, internationally as well.

We, vain Americans, blame BP and all the others out there, but it's our addiction providing our neighborhood dealer with the incentives. Our dependency on oil is an addiction we need to break.

The term "deep water" usually means you're in trouble and "horizon" is what lies ahead. So the ill-fated drilling rig Deepwater Horizon, is aptly named. Doom has arrived on our shores and our prospects are tacky with tar balls.

In short, we run the risk of drowning in oil, but we don't have a choice. But is that really true? Are we trapped for decades in the grasp of this collective addiction that destroys the nature we depend on for our very existence while emptying our national treasury?

If the catastrophe in the Gulf does not wake us up to the need to wean ourselves off oil and move towards clean, safe, renewable energy, I don't know what will.

In introducing the "American Power Act" on May 12, 2010, Senators John Kerry (D-MA) and Joseph Lieberman (I-CT) seemed oblivious to the various public relations disasters the industries favored in their bill had suffered in recent weeks.

IN TODAY'S AUDIO REPORT: Honey, I shrunk the fish!; Off-shore drilling vs. California's budget; "Clean coal" vs. reality; Tourism vs. Safety in Misso...

Chu understands that energy policy is not just about oil, and he has a distinguished history of involvement in the kinds of transformational science that could radically alter U.S. dependence on foreign oil.