At midnight tonight, the moratorium banning offshore drilling will expire, allowing oil companies to drill as close as three miles from our shores. The energy debate devolved into a narrow argument over drilling, which my colleague Rob Perks addresses in his blog.

The calls for "drill baby drill" provided enough distraction for some members of Congress to push through the expiration of another moratorium - this one on oil shale.  According to many of our experts at NRDC, the potential impact of this development could be far worse than drilling for oil.

Oil shale, which is found in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming, releases four times the amount of global warming pollution as conventional fuel. It can be converted into liquid petroleum and then transportation fuel, but only after being heated to 900 degrees for five years or more. It's also a technology that is largely untested.

Jad Mouawad writes about oil shale  in the New York Times blog Green Inc.

It is mind boggling that instead of investing in our nation's green infrastructure, Big Oil allies in Washington would work to lease more than 2 million acres of public land to develop this energy intensive fuel.

Many in the House and Senate worked to keep this important moratorium in place. Senators Reid and Byrd offered an amendment to prevent the Department of Interior from leasing federal land for oil shale production. Although the bill to keep the ban failed by 8 votes, it sets a mark for the 111th Congress and our new president to reinstate this vital moratorium and start investing in a clean energy future that will create jobs and jumpstart our economy.