Your question is, of course, rhetorical... when prices go back up again, as they inevitably will at some point, people will be much more willing for development. Especially since it will mean jobs.
If the American people who are against drilling in the US were subjected to what happened during the Arab Oil Embargo against the U.S. in the early 1970s, they would change their opinions very quickly.
Then you had long lines, amount of gas you could buy limits, stations running out of gas, only able to buy gas only on alternate days, fist fights over people cutting in line, etc.