Hurricane Ike spilled at least half a million gallons of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico and the wetlands of Louisiana and Texas, according to a review of federal data by the Associated Press, released today. 

As proponents of dirty fuels natter on about the safety of new offshore drilling techniques, it’s tempting to counter them with a spiel about the toxic mess caused by Ike: “See!  Pumping oil out of the ocean floor is inherently risky, so the more we do, the more collateral damage we’ll suffer.”

But we should beware how this plays to our own weakness, which is a tendency to focus our communications on problems instead of solutions, and to think too much in environmental terms, and not enough in economic ones.

Sure, Ike spilled a bunch of oil, and future hurricanes will spill much more.  But we’ve got to remember that the whole offshore debate is just another distraction from what we should be talking about, namely, the virtues of a clean energy economy and how we can build that economy as quickly as possible.

The more time we spend pointing out the pitfalls of offshore drilling, the happier it makes Big Oil, which wants nothing more than to stop Americans from thinking about the very real economic benefits they’ll reap from a transition to clean energy.  So, sure, let’s point out in passing that offshore drilling is inherently dirty and dangerous.  But let’s keep our eye on the prize, which is convincing Americans that a much better future awaits us if we get serious about clean energy.

What does that mean in practice?  Well, the next time a reporter asks you to comment on the liabilities of offshore drilling (which will probably be later today), let her know that you want your quote to be about the huge opportunity we have for offshore wind power.