Re: drilling in alaska and the like...
I've read that the amount of oil in the alaskian "reserves" isn't as much as one might think... and they say it would take 10 years to get to it (meaning setting up all the infrestructure and getting the oiling flowing to the market) and by that time the demand will have increased to the point where all the oil would be used up in a couple years... so it isn't economically "worth it" to go get it... environmental impacts aside.
like jebelbryan said - going after all these small pockets of reserves "is just delaying the inevitable."

too bad more effort into research and development into other energy sources wasn't kicked into gear back in the 70s...