ANWR: A tiny, last injection at the end of an orgy of consumption

[NewYorkerfromMass]

Sure a couple hundred thousand barrels per day in the year 2025 would be helpful, but in the big picture, it is close to nothing.
For an illustration of just how cheap and whorish drilling ANWR is, just look at this graph:



"It is clear that it would take some 13 years (from today) for the ANWR Coastal Plain to begin making a sizeable contribution to U.S. oil supply and that while this would be a non-trivial contribution to supply, it really does not change the long-term outlook. We cannot rely on ANWR to significantly alleviate our long-term security problems stemming from our heavy reliance on increasingly imported oil...."

http://pubs.wri.org/pubs_content_text.cfm?ContentID=1219

Note that it is not even known how much oil lies in ANWR. It could be as liitle as 5.7 billion barrels, or as much as 16. The expected mean is 10, which is the basis of the graph. The bottom line is that the result is the same: One day there will be no more oil!!!

Drilling ANWR is a pathetic, shortsighted, and not least of all- cowardly act.

[jpgray]

1. It will make some people a lot of money

That's why it's in there. Focusing on how it helps our oil supply is a total dodge of the issue, in my view. This is helpful to point out just WHY it is a total dodge of the issue.

[mhr]

2. ANWR Holds Between 6 and 16 Billion Barrels Of Oil

The world uses 80 Million Barrels of Oil per day.

6 Billion barrels = 75 days of world supply

16 Billion barrels = 200 days of world supply

The US uses 20 Million Barrels of Oil per day.

6 Billion barrels = 300 days of US supply = .83 years

16 Billion Barrels = 800 days of US supply = 2.2 years

It will take 5-10 years before a drop of this oil hits a refinery.

Hardly seems worth the effort when raising the CAFE standards would save more than we get with drilling.

[NewYorkerfromMass]

7. Even the oil companies aren't interested in drilling ANWR

this is from a reprint of a NYTimes article published Feb. 21:

"....The major oil companies are largely uninterested in drilling in the refuge, skeptical about the potential there. Even the plan's most optimistic backers agree that any oil from the refuge would meet only a tiny fraction of America's needs....

...A Bush adviser said the major oil companies have a dimmer view of the refuge's prospects than the administration does.

"If the government gave them the leases for free, they wouldn't take them," said the adviser, who would speak only anonymously because of his position. "No oil company really cares about ANWR," the adviser said, referring to the refuge....

however, there is this ulterior motivation:

"...including the refuge was seen as a political maneuver to open the door to more geologically promising prospects off the coasts of California and Florida. Those areas, where tests have found oil, have been blocked for years by federal moratoriums because of political and environmental concerns."

"If you can't do ANWR, you'll never be able to drill in the promising areas," said Matthew Simmons, a Houston investment banker for the energy industry and a Bush adviser...

the bottom line on ANWR as far as the oil companies are concerned is this:

....An official with one of the companies, speaking anonymously because of the confidentiality of the (original 1980's drill) test, said that if the results had been encouraging, the company would be more engaged in the political effort to open the refuge."

http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/living/science/11071355.htm

[Goldmund]

3. If you graphed it...

...against US oil CONSUMPTION as opposed to production, the bump would be far less significant yet.

[HereSince1628]

4. I think the idea was to undermine the concept of preservation

and replace it with conservation.

Preserve means leave it as it is forever (humans don't need to use it in anyway for it to be a valued preserve).

Conservation means wise use, most good for the most people (to be a conservation area there must be opportunities for use even if that use is delayed for generation(s))

This is an old old debate around a dichotomy. Today, in principle, those interested in conservation won out over those who believe in preservation. It creates opportunities in other locations where other resources are of interest...expland your thinking to include wiping entire mountains off the face of the planet as mining companies seek to harvest low grade deposits of gold ore from National lands in the mountain west.

[roguevalley]

5. The Mafia will be back with the other blood suckers. Pray for us.

[Joey Liberal]

6. Republicans Hate the Environment

I need to join the Sierra Club or something. This is going too far. I honestly believe if Bush thought there were a few barrels of oil under the White House lawn, he'd drill there.