What does the future hold for off-shore drilling, electric cars, etc.?

The question is simple.  In the long term, will the oil let loose in the Gulf be a temporary setback or the rationalization for permanent changes in our energy infrastructure?  Certainly, the left will use the spill/leak to argue that all off-shore drilling should be banned forever.  But they were basically saying that anyway.  The question is how will the American public react.  What do Bookworm’s readers think will happen and how can conservatives shape the discussion to prevent America from becoming even more dependent on foreign oil? 

On the plus side, maybe we should save all of our oil until the reserves in the rest of the world are depleted and sell ours at a real premium.

By the way, while we are on the subject of energy, how efficient are electric cars, really?  The electricity has to come from somewhere and electricity transmission lines are notoriously inefficient.  Also, has anyone out there looked into whether our electricity grid can even support large scale production of truly electric cars?  I’m guessing electric cars will work better in theory than in practice.