Tapping Oil In Anwr

Is there enough oil beneath the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) to help secure America’s energy future? President Bush certainly thinks so. He has argued that tapping ANWR’s oil would help ease California’s electricity crisis, and Tag Heuer Replica Watches provide a major boost to the country’s energy independence. But no one knows for sure how much crude oil lies buried beneath the frozen earth, with the last government survey, conducted in 1998, projecting output anywhere from 3 billion to 16 billion barrels.

The oil industry goes with the high end of the range, which could equal much as 10% of U.S. consumption tor as long as six year. By pumping more than I million barrels a day from the reserve for the next two to three decades, lobbyists claim, the nation could cut back on imports equivalent to all shipments to the U. S. from Saudi Arabia. Sounds goo An oil boom would also mean a multibillion-dollar windfall in tax revenues, Royalties and leasing Ices for Alaska and the Federal Government. Best of all, advocates of drilling say, damage to the environment would be insignificant. “We’ve never had a documented case of an oil rig chasing deer out onto the pack ice, “says Alaska State Representative Scott Ogan.

Not so fast, say environmentalists. Sticking to the low end of government estimates, the National Resources Defense Council says there may be no more than 3.2 billion barrels 0f economically recoverable oil in the coastal plain of ANWR, a drop in the bucket that would do virtually nothing to ease America’s energy problems. And consumers would wait up to a decade to gain any benefits, because drilling could begin only after Tag Heuer Carrera Replica much bargaining leases, environmental permits and regulatory review. As for ANWR’s impact on the California power crisis, environmentalists point out that oil is responsible for only 1% of the Golden State’s electricity output and just 3>% of the nation’s.