Once Again, Bush Wants To Drill Alaska - And He Is Right
7 billion barrels of oil are estimated to lie under the 1002 portion of ANWR, the Artic National Wildlife Refuge (in non-barreled form, of course). News article, MIT research data, official ANWR website.
Due to strict government regulations, only the 1002 area of ANWR can be developed, and the rest must remain untouched. The Coastal Plain area of Anwar lies 65 miles to the east of oil fields which are responsible for 25% of the US’s domestic oil production. However, these fields have begun to drop in production, and new fields have not been located nearby to compensate. The Coastal Plain of ANWR is a bit larger than the state of Delaware. ANWR, as a whole, is larger than West Virginia (source). When considering the highest possible costs for environmental damage, the profit of drilling outweighs the cost by 5 to 1.
Now, about these costs. The ‘protected wildlife’ in ANWR is the Porcupine Caribou. In similar locations where oil is being drilled, the caribou population actually rose. Not rose by a little; rose by a lot: the Central Artic Caribou Herd grew from 3,000 to 32,000 since the creation of the Prudhoe Bay oil drills. The reason for this is very simple, but often overlooked: caribou do not like to freeze to death. The oil pipes and buildings produce heat (the pipes in particular are good heaters, as the oil running through them is quite hot, because hot oil goes through a pipe much easier than cold oil), and caribou have conglomerated around the oil pipes due to the heat. This probably increases breeding habits, and helps prevent some of the animals from freezing to death during extremely cold periods. Rather than harm the wildlife, development for oil production helps the wildlife.
The portion of ANWR that could be drilled is only 8% of the entire Refuge. Additionally, between 250,000 and 735,000 jobs would be created by drilling in the reserve. Plus, 75% of Alaskans want to drill ANWR, including the Eskimos who live in and near the region. The entire top-10 list can be found here. There is actually no reason to oppose drilling in ANWR, with the exception of trying to win the vote of a few moronic ‘environmentalists’ who think all human products should be eradicated to ‘help protect the environment’. These are the same type of environmentalists, mind you, that I mentioned here.
Due to strict government regulations, only the 1002 area of ANWR can be developed, and the rest must remain untouched. The Coastal Plain area of Anwar lies 65 miles to the east of oil fields which are responsible for 25% of the US’s domestic oil production. However, these fields have begun to drop in production, and new fields have not been located nearby to compensate. The Coastal Plain of ANWR is a bit larger than the state of Delaware. ANWR, as a whole, is larger than West Virginia (source). When considering the highest possible costs for environmental damage, the profit of drilling outweighs the cost by 5 to 1.
Now, about these costs. The ‘protected wildlife’ in ANWR is the Porcupine Caribou. In similar locations where oil is being drilled, the caribou population actually rose. Not rose by a little; rose by a lot: the Central Artic Caribou Herd grew from 3,000 to 32,000 since the creation of the Prudhoe Bay oil drills. The reason for this is very simple, but often overlooked: caribou do not like to freeze to death. The oil pipes and buildings produce heat (the pipes in particular are good heaters, as the oil running through them is quite hot, because hot oil goes through a pipe much easier than cold oil), and caribou have conglomerated around the oil pipes due to the heat. This probably increases breeding habits, and helps prevent some of the animals from freezing to death during extremely cold periods. Rather than harm the wildlife, development for oil production helps the wildlife.
The portion of ANWR that could be drilled is only 8% of the entire Refuge. Additionally, between 250,000 and 735,000 jobs would be created by drilling in the reserve. Plus, 75% of Alaskans want to drill ANWR, including the Eskimos who live in and near the region. The entire top-10 list can be found here. There is actually no reason to oppose drilling in ANWR, with the exception of trying to win the vote of a few moronic ‘environmentalists’ who think all human products should be eradicated to ‘help protect the environment’. These are the same type of environmentalists, mind you, that I mentioned here.
posted by Chris at
9:54 PM
3 Comments:
Kudos to you for having the balls to admit that you think oil drilling is something that should be allowed to happen.
But I suggest you read up on the environmental impact it has before sprouting your uneducated response.
Google "environmental impact of oil drilling" and then sit back and tell me that it's all ok because wildlife thrive as they are not freezing to death, the natives are happy with the decision to build monstrosities that pollute, not only the earth, but the air as well.
The less I say on Bush the better, but he is in the same league as our own Prime Minister out here. So who am I to talk on that.
Daisy
By
Anonymous, at 11:42 PM, November 09, 2004
It's important to distinguish conservationism and preservationism. Preservists, better known as Druids, want to keep nature in its static current state. They, like the Druids of old, would be willing to sacrifice man to trees. Conservationists recognize that it's important to keep a careful eye on development, but also understand that nature should be used for man's progression.
By
Anonymous, at 11:44 PM, November 09, 2004
That would provide for nearly a full year, if there are 7 billion barrels in the Coastal Plain. However, the 7 billion barrels may be a low estimate; the US Department of Interior estimates somewhere between 9 and 16 billion barrels. If there are 16 billion barrels, that's a good 2-year supply (we probably can't get all the oil out of the ground that fast, though. Quite a shame). The US will use about 20 million barrels of oil per day, which means 7.3 billion barrels per year.
We might actually be able to embargo Saudi Arabia, especially since our largest oil supplier is Canada. It would be so fun to MOAB the Saud family reunion.
the third result in a google search for 'environmental impact of oil drilling' is Research Shows Little Effect From Arctic Offshore Oil Drilling; Study Reveals Thriving Oceanographic System. Additionally, drilling equiptment would have a 'footprint' of only about 2,000 acres. ANWR is 19 million acres. That's not much environmental damage. A MOAB over the Saud Royal Family (and it would have to be a MOAB or bigger weapon, because the Royal Family is very big; it has somewhere between 100,000 and 2,000,000 members, depending on how far you count extended family) would cause many times more environmental damage.
By
Chris, at 10:17 PM, November 10, 2004
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