The Red and Black

I wonder if Ms. Womick has even visited Alaska or asked any Alaskans for their opinion on the ANWR issue. I grew up in Alaska, and I know that a majority of Alaskans favor drilling in ANWR. Even many of the Native Alaskan communities favor opening up ANWR. Why? Economic development. The oil industry brings jobs and residual income. It also pays for operating the state government.

Prudhoe Bay's oil capacity is dwindling, and there is no reason not to open up the adjacent lands for exploration. Almost all of Alaska's land is locked up in national parks, and contrary to popular belief, ANWR isn't where all of Alaska's wildlife are. Drilling would take place on such a small chunk of ANWR's coastal plain anyway, and the caribou can coexist with the infrastructure.

Some of Alaska's oil does get exported to Asia, but why does that matter? It's a global market, and the oil is distributed efficiently. The money comes back to benefit Alaska and Alaskans in the form of high oil royalties. Moreover, the U.S. can depend on Alaska's production when needed. To get the capacity online will take years, so let's get started now.

ANWR is not a complete solution to energy independence. Everyone knows that. This opinion piece is not timely either; under no circumstances will a Democratic Congress give ANWR drilling the go-ahead. Opening up ANWR is a long-term step to keep the crude flowing through the Trans-Alaska Pipeline for several more decades, which will benefit Alaskans and all Americans.

You do realize that drilling ANWR would use only 1500 of the 19 million acres, right? Also, 75% of the local population is for drilling for oil, and of those people, only 220 people live in the area that would be affected. Another thing is that 1.5 million of those acres were set aside by president Carter for the exploration and drilling of oil. Now I am not saying that I am for drilling ANWR, in fact, i don't think it will solve too many of our problems. That being said, Darwin believed in survival of the fittest, and that is us, the human race. We can't let a few Caribou get in the way of our daily lives, the Caribou wont all die if they have to move. I just can't stand it when newspeople don't give all the facts.

Saying that that some oil from ANWR may be exported is a very stupid reason for not drilling there! Take an class in economics. If we export a million barrels from ANWR and import a million barrels from somewhere else, it costs us nothing. If we import a million barrels and export none it costs us 140 million dollars! Research and development of alternative energy sources is great and we should do that, but as long as we are useing more oil than we are producing we need to drill as much as possible. If we end up with more oil than we need we can sell it to China to pay for all our imported lead painted toys!

ANWR is not a solution. It is a drop in the barrel (no pun intended). For those of you who have not dug into the numbers, check out:

http://blog.theryanklein.com/2008/09/04/52

There is some there, but not enough to make a differnce in the long term.

Recent studies suggest that until the U.S. develops a serious program on energy revolution and conservation, other country's foreign oil dependency and everyday gas-guzzling habits will remain unchanged with or without drilling in ANWR.