Why we need to Drill in ANWR
There are 2 main criticisms of drilling in ANWR. First, they say we’ll destroy an entire ecosystem. Secondly, the Department of Energy report issued last month said, “If Congress were to open up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling, crude oil prices would probably drop by an average of only 75 cents a barrel.” Even worse, they’re talking about 20 years from now before the price would drop.
The thing is though just think if somebody had decided to allow drilling there 20 years ago. 75 cents less would mean gas costing $3.50 instead of $4.25. That’s a huge savings for somebody like me getting nine miles to the gallon. Currently, the dumocrats are blocking drilling claiming that the oil companies already have millions of acres of land that they own the rights to, but haven’t started drilling already. If we don’t get the price of oil down soon, Americans are going to have no choice, but to take drastic steps like buying smaller cars and even using public transportation.
not public transportation!!!! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!
thatswrongnate
June 18, 2008 at 10:57 pm
If there’s an upside to this situation – and there isn’t – it’s that maybe those mile long pick-ups will disappear. You can’t even get past them in a small parking area.
zenyenta
June 19, 2008 at 6:33 am
The DOE report estimated that opening ANWR would reduce crude oil prices by ~$0.75/barrel, not gasoline by ~$0.75/gallon. A reduction in the cost of a barrel of oil by $0.75 would have a negligible effect on the price of a gallon of gas, somewhere on the order of 3-6 cents/gallon. ANWR is not the silver bullet to kill high oil prices. Maybe the better solution would be to not drive a vehicle that gets 9 mpg.
Think of it this way – 38% of our country’s daily oil consumption if for transportation, roughly half of that for personal vehicles. If the average fuel economy of personal vehicles was raised from the current ~17mpg to the CAFE standard of 27 mpg, the daily savings in oil would be equal to the daily amount of oil we import from the Middle East.
wilco278
June 19, 2008 at 10:48 am