NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- "Drill-baby-drill!"

"With the price of oil falling below $75 a barrel Wednesday - down about 49% from last summer's highs - the industry's battle cry is sounding less and less convincing.

"But falling oil prices are not the only reason why the air is coming out of the drilling balloon. The credit crunch has hampered oil company's ability to fund big-ticket drilling projects. Meanwhile, the prices that producers pay for raw materials and labor remain high."

What we've done, though, in a spate of patriotic panic is sell out our shorelines. Congress is prone to panic, always afraid of being less patriotic than the next mindless redneck. "Patriot" Act is another example, as is funding the military without a timetable for withdrawal from impossible situations.

Arf