Wrapping himself in the once-impermeable defense of “strengthening our national security”, President Bush delivered his magnum opus as a Texas oil man this morning, calling upon our legislature to lift the federal statute banning oil exploration off the nation’s coastline.

Bush implored Congress to open the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve as well, myopically extolling the virtues of industry self-regulation. “Scientists have developed innovative techniques to reach Anwar’s oil with virtually no impact on the land or local wildlife,” Bush said. “I urge members of Congress to allow this remote region to bring enormous benefits to the American people.”

However, once the hyperbole has dissolved under the harsh light of reality, Bush’s proposal runs contrary to every vestige of logic in our new global energy economy.

An expansion of domestic oil production will do nothing to move us away from a economically untenable energy diet. Nor will it provide any measurable relief at the pump. Even if the derricks hit oil today, the oil companies will sit on the reserves until they can sell at top dollar. In the wake of record-setting quarterly profits at ExxonMobil, what trust should the consumer have that these companies will give up their oil out of charity and good will?

Furthermore, we haven’t built a new refinery in the United States in nearly 25 years. That’s another bottleneck that would have to be overcome for this expansion in drilling to have any effect on prices at the pump.

In the end, all we would receive from Bush’s plan is another record-setting quarter for ExxonMobil, BP and ChevronTexaco. And we would rush — full steam ahead — to the day when we dry.

Ignoring temporarily the documented risk off-shore drilling poses to wildlife, it is becoming clear that M. King Hubbert’s treatise on “Peak Oil” is correct. The former “third world” is undergoing a petroleum fueled renaissance, consuming more energy per capita than at any time in history, all while the amount of recoverable oil left on this planet is at or past its peak.

Bottom line: it’s getting harder and more costly to recover the oil we need. An intelligent society would interpret this as sign that we must conserve.

Through its ubiquity, oil has become an integral commodity in 21st century life. It’s not just in our cars and trucks, it’s in the plastic that makes our cellphones, laptops and even our pens possible.

Our complete dependence on oil will only complicate our search for alternatives. The last thing we need to do is rush headlong into a oil-starved apocalypse by deluding ourselves, accelerating our consumption and deferring our investment in replacement energy sources.

So to our representatives, besieged by lobbyists and now lectured by our President, don’t drink the oil man’s Kool-Aid.