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In article >,
(T) wrote:

> And why can't we drill for oil in ANWR? ANWR consist of 19 million
> acres,only 2000 acres is needed for drilling.Oil reserves in ANWR are
> estimated to be in the billions of barrels (geologist,not
> Bush).pollution?well Russian explorers noted oil seeping to the surface
> in many sites in the present ANWR,natives in that area used to cut out
> blocs of oil soaked tundra to use as fuel for heating/cooking.One
> village of 200 natives is the only inhabitants in ANWR.You want to make
> the people who hate us richer? Then go right ahead,it will come back to
> haunt us in the not too distant future.

Just raising fuel economy standards would save far more oil than ANWR
could produce. If the CAFE (Corporate Average Fuel Economy) for new
cars, SUVs and other light trucks was raised to an average of 40 miles
per gallon over the next 10 years, it would save nearly 2 million
barrels per day in 2012 and nearly 4 mbd by 2020. According to the Dept.
of Energy, we import 2.3 million barrels a day from the Persian Gulf,
out of 11.727 mbd gross imports. Therefore, raising our fuel economy
standards would save more than we import from the Persian Gulf. And
raising the CAFE would not only reduce our dependence on foreign oil, it
would result in cleaner air.

"Only 2000 acres" is also disingenuous, as it disregards the roads that
would have to be built, the pipelines, production facilities,
discharges, etc.

The inflated figures for the oil deposits is also a red herring, as it
relates to what is called "technically recoverable oil," which refers to
the amount of oil that could be recovered WITHOUT REGARD TO COST.
The mean amount of *economically recoverable oil* is 3.2 billion
barrels. The US consumes 20 million barrels a day, meaning that ANWR
would only yield a little over 5 months worth of oil. If we tried to
stretch that out over a measly five years, that's 1,753,425 barrels,
about 9% of daily use, which wouldn't put a dent in crude prices, even
assuming our production costs were lower than what OPEC would be
charging. (Oil reserve figures from the U.S. Geological Survey).

By contrast, the Persian Gulf contains around 674 billion barrels of
proven oil reserves; even at the most optimistic estimates, ANWR
reserves are a drop in the bucket, and would have a minimal effect on
the price of crude.

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