The growing oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico offers a sad commentary on America's voracious appetite for energy. Eleven men are dead and hundreds are feverishly working to clean up the mess, which just won't cooperate. Every day, 42,000 gallons of oil are vomited into the ocean by an open well that refuses to be capped.

Meanwhile, anxious state officials from Louisana to Alabama strain their eyes out into the waters of the Gulf, wondering when the slick will arrive, if they'll be able to contain it, or if it will ruin their beaches and wetlands. This was bound to happen at some point, but I no one expected it on our watch. So what do we do now?

The President recently gave hopeful signs that new offshore wells could be drilled. That will probably get held up in state legislatures up and down the east coast. Doubtless new regulations will have to be spun up by Congress, then put in place at enormous expense, driving up the cost of crude and the gasoline made from it.

A new wind energy project is slated to be built within sight of the Kennedy compound in Massachusetts. Of course, howls and protests abound, mainly from those in the vicinity of the proposed wind farm. Funny how liberals all want alternative energy, as long as it's in someone else's back yard and not blocking their view.

There's no getting away from our need for energy. But I, for one, am hopeful that, given enough room to think creatively, the brains of industry will figure out a way to get the country off the slippery slope of oil and on to renewable sources of energy some time soon. This is a matter of creation-keeping. The creation can yield energy that is renewable and reliable, and that doesn't threaten life in the Gulf, the ocean, or along the shores of the nation. Surely we should be encouraging more leeway and investment for such projects?

T. M. Moore