Don't overlook this -
The USA is the third largest oil producer in the world.
We produce 5.14MM bbl/day, only Russia and Saudi Arabia are larger, appx 9.2MM bbl/day each. We produce considerably more than Mexico or Iran or China; 2X more than Canada, Kuwait, UAE, Venezuela, Iraq; and multiples more than any other oil-producing country. We produce 7% of the world's daily oil. (2006 numbers from
http://www.eia.doe.gov/aer/txt/ptb1105.html )
Well, you say, we could increase our production, and become an even bigger producer.
Indeed, until 1976, the USA was the #1 oil producer in the world. We were larger than Saudi Arabia or anyone else. We produced 14% of the world's daily oil in 1976.
And, in the 1970s when we were the world's #1 producer, accounting for 14% of global production, was the USA "energy independent"? No, not by a long shot, as two severe oil shocks and recessions the in 1970s proved.
So is it realistic to think that drilling more wells in 2009 can make us "energy independent"? Obviously not. The USA cannot under any scenario ever be 14% of the world's production again, can't even be 8% - even if every single field in the lower 48, in Alaska including ANWR, off the CA and FL coasts, etc, is drilled. Because the US does not have enough oil reserves left, after 100 years of intensive exploring and producing, period. No matter how much we drill in the US, we will still import roughly 2/3 of the oil we use.
And we wouldn't impact the price of oil much either. The US Energy Dept (under the Bush Administration) has estimated that drilling in ANWR would reduce the price of oil by only about 50 cents. So drilling in all the other places (FL coast, etc) would have a 50 cent or less impact.
Thus all the domestic drilling in the world will not make the US "energy independent", or reduce our economy's vulnerability to oil shocks, or even bring down the price of oil by much or for long.
The only way to reduce the USA's dependence on, and vulnerability to, "foreign oil" is to be less dependent on "oil, period". To use less oil and more of other energy sources.