Re: ANWR Drilling Measure Kept In Budget Bill

Mary Ann — Fri, 04 Nov 2005 09:12:14 -0000

What I don't understand about Democrats is, while they're very concerned with America's dependence on foreign oil, they're not willing to allow for the exploitation of domestic petroleum resources.

Most Democrats, many Republicans and some oil companies are very concerned about dependence on oil - all oil. The North Slope is a unique and fragile natural area containing a modest amount of oil. Drilling for oil there would permanently damage the area in exchange for the very brief, temporary respite oil reserves in ANWR might provide. It's something like chopping a hole in your roof for ventilation on a hot summer day.

Re: ANWR Drilling Measure Kept In Budget Bill

Mary Ann — Fri, 04 Nov 2005 14:11:57 -0000

Wow. I didn't mean to sound quite so much like a treehugger. Just trying to give Rob some insight into why Democrats and others seem not to be eager to exploit ANWR. According to EIA ANWR may contain 11 billion barrels of oil and by 2005 peak production could reach just under 1 million barrels per day (est US demand in 2025 = 27 million barrels per day.) That would have the effect of reducing the price of oil by up up to 50 cents per barrel and reducing our oil imports from 70% of our total use to 66%. That doesn't sound like much of an improvement to me. More interesting info here. By the way ND, along with MT and WY, has increased oil production since 2004.

The damage from drilling in Prudhoe Bay is well documented. Because of the low temperature recovery is much slower than we're accustomed to in the lower 48. Still you have to care about the integrity of the land, as most Americans do, for any of this to matter.

This is too long. I'll post more on my blog.

Disqus - Latest Comments for Mary Ann

Re: ANWR Drilling Measure Kept In Budget Bill

Re: ANWR Drilling Measure Kept In Budget Bill