ANWR oil = 1 day jet air travel

[aztc]

When ANWR is developed it is predicted to supply about 1.5 million barrels per day, which is just about how much is consumed each day by jet air travel in the US of A.

Save ANWR, stop flying in jet aircraft, demand national high speed rail instead.

http://PeaceTraintoDC.com

[rfkrfk]

1. tax on jet fuel is four cents a gallon

for US domestic flight

[aztc]

2. Zero tax on fuel for International flights?

As in no tax at all? How can this be? Isn't the tax FORTY CENTS per gallon for motorists?

[dcfirefighter]

4. Highway Taxes

I can't think of a real reason for airplanes to pay highway taxes on fuel.

Anyone who burns fuel should be required to pay a carbon tax, but that's not the way we work now.

I'm not entirely sure that high speed rail would be more sustainable than air travel for all destinations - it's quite a sunk energy cost to build a railway between two points: if they are far apart and infrequently visited, it may be better to operate an air route, especially if 'green' fuels are used.

I do think that several major north-south rail routes, as well as at least one east-west one, would be in order.

[aztc]

7. Offered it as a comparison

Which leads to more questions, like does the .04 cents they do pay cover the facilities they use? Including the added cost of security due to the built in 'guided-missile' potential of every flight?

There is an argument to be made for air travel beyond 600 miles or so, but not using jets. I understand existing turboprops uses about half as much fuel but are a bit slower? Hey hydrogen people, what about dirigibles?

In any case, there is seldom a 'single answer' to any problem, however answers are often rejected due to predictable bias required by many professionals employment or source of income.

Think Steam: http://SolarSteamTrain.com

[dcfirefighter]

8. Taxes to cover airports, security

buy one of those $59 special tickets and there are about $30 of taxes on it, one to pay for the airport, and another '9/11' tax.

[aztc]

3. $23 million per day subsidy

Doing some 'back of the envelope' figures, jet airlines consuming 63 million gallons per day are paying .04 cents tax per gallon and motorists are paying .40 cents tax per gallon, a difference of .36 cents per gallon.

So, the subsidy works out to 63 million gallons X .36 cents, or about 22.6 million dollars. Per day x 365 days = 82.49 BILLION dollars per year. Is that right?

While folks are freezing in their homes?

[aztc]

6. Correction $8.2 Billion per year

Many thanks for the math correction, I got confused with all the zeros...it works out to an $8.2 billion dollar per year subsidy.

[Strelnikov_]

5. If ANWR Produces Anything Close To 1.5 Mbbl/dy

you can call me late for dinner.

Point taken, though.

[BlueEyedSon]

9. No, it is equal to 4000 days of air travel not one.

Will ANWR produce for just one day? No, probably for 10 years (4000 days) at that rate, based on 6 billion recoverable barrels.

[BlueEyedSon]

10. 1.5 million is less than 10% of the 20 million we use per day

I bet conservation (increasing average automobile mileage a few MPGs for example) could save that per day....

[dcfirefighter]

11. Don't underestimate the power of marginal pricing

A change in supply of a small percent can have a large effect on price.

That being said, I oppose ANWR drilling, and have no problem with high oil prices.