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President Obama's decision this week not to approve a proposed oil pipeline from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico…is either the best thing he's done since becoming president..or the worst.

It's the best, if you believe it would have been an ecological disaster.

It's the worst, if you feel its deprives the U.S. of an opportunity to be more energy independent.

Those of you who have seen my editorials over years, know that I favor more conservation of energy rather than merely finding new sources and using them up.

But I also still drive my private car to work everyday and have all sorts of devices around my home that depend on electricity.

I'm as addicted to relatively cheap energy as most Americans.

I wish our communities were more pedestrian and mass-transit friendly so we could reduce our reliance on cars.

I wish that every time we find a way to conserve energy, we wouldn't also find something new that gobbles up those savings.

I wish we could snap our fingers and make solar batteries more efficient and wind turbines more prevalent.

But wishing will not meet our current and future energy needs.

Americans are showing no sign of reducing their hunger for more and more devices powered by electricity.

And as long as that's the case, and we can't generate enough energy ourselves, we will constantly be at the mercy of countries that can choke off our energy supply whenever they want.

If wide-scale conservation isn't something we Americans want to do, then we must find energy within our own borders.

For this reason, and this reason alone, I support the pipeline project as long as most of the people in the affected states support it.

But if it's not going to be built, then we must find ways to reduce our reliance on oil.

And that won't be easy.