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What’s 2000 acres of 19 million?
A bill approving drilling for oil in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) has been passed by the U.S. House of Representatives. If the bill passes the Senate (which is unlikely), 2000 acres of this pristine refuge that supports greater variety of animals and plants than any other protected area in the arctic. Alaska Inter-Tribal Council, a union of over 200 native Alaskan tribes have opposed any development in ANWR, while National Defense Council Foundation, a Republican organization estimates 2,000,000 US jobs would be created, directly and indirectly, by opening ANWR to oil drilling.
As an scientist – job growth and an insignificant percent (0.02%) of land use verses a few thousand locals losing land which they hunted on seems like a reasonable proposition. As an activist – I find this issue ethically challenged, for one, if this piece of land was set-aside as a wildlife refuge, is it fair to rezone the area only to allow large corporations to exploit the resources for profits? Also, will the growth of population that will follow economic growth, inflate the risk of the refuge being urbanized?
Oil prices are on the rise, making the decision to venture into otherwise controversial programs easy for congress, after all we crib more about gasoline prices than the loss of habitat for the polar bears. The contention here is, Are there no other method to combat the rising oil price? Is the price of gas simply an issue of supply and demand? Why are alternatives to oil not promoted instead of funding projects to find new places to acquire oil from?
In attempting to answer these questions, one must not forget that oil is non-renewable and highly polluting, so the very idea of finding more of it seem futile as compared to finding alternatives. Alternative source of energy to run our vehicles are not always new and untried, clean burning natural gas, electric cars, and hybrids are all technologies that are in place and market tested.
Then there are the more aerodynamic light weight vehicles that reduce oil consumption simply by design alteration. Of course, we should not forget that even our old El Caminos and Ford Pintos could be made environmentally friendly, just give it a tune up.
Consumption of gasoline is on the down turn, which means the user are feeling the pinch of high prices, but does not explain the supply-demand excuse, if people are using less of a commodities, it should be cheap. As to why government is proposing more oil supply verses more alternatives (especially when a region as large as ANWR is already designated as a petroleum reserve- Click on the image above), call or write to your Congressman, Senator or your House Representative.
And finally, let’s self evaluate our burden on the ecosystem and help turn the tide.
Click for HR 5429 bills: American-Made Energy and Good Jobs Act (Engrossed as Agreed to or Passed by House).
Click for more on ANWR.
Footnote: The Alaska Inter-Tribal Council, as a statewide consortium of First Nations, which share a common bond with unique cultures, language, spirituality, and traditional values, declare our intent to proactively advocate for, protect, defend, and enhance our inherent rights, as self-determining tribal sovereigns.
Footnote: National Defense Council Foundation is a defense policy think-tank specializing in low-intensity conflict, drug wars, and energy policy as it pertains to U.S. national security. NDCF works to protect American security through media appearances, research and publications, medical and fact-finding missions, and the intern program.
Photo Courtesy: ANWR.org
Posted by Moderator on May 26th, 2006 filed in AITC, ANWR, Bush, NDCF, Oil, Tips/Tools 1 Comment »
July 21st, 2008 at 7:39 pm
Harry Reed YOU really need to read this. All America has, but you just seem to be out of the loop and ARE NOT in the same zone as the REST OF AMERICA.
So why don’t your staff look into the web site and you should also. STOP KILLING AMERICA!
The Truth About Crude Oil
First Crude Oil is NOT from Dino the Dinosaur or his brothers. Logically speaking if the earth was covered with a dense primeval forest and there was a Dinosaur living in every five square mile area on the face of the earth, and all this was compressed into a sub surface space for tens of thousands of years, and produced a pool of Crude Oil, it WOULD ONLY FEED the needs of this world for the PAST twenty years, so WHAT FUELED the Industrial Age for the first EIGHTY YEARS???????????????????????????
Think about what is stated above! Science states that oil is the by product of the earths ENGINE as it rotates creating GRAVITY and super heating rock formations, that through this process release oil and this oil flows into cavities within the earth.
Now with this said, what is the reason for the excessive spike in Crude and Natural Gas prices? GREED.
In the 60’s gas sold for 35 cents a gallon, cars got 5 to 7 MPG so a 100 mile trip would take some 16 gallons at a cost of 5 dollars. Today cars get 30 miles to a gallon and that same trip would only take 3 gallons of gas at a cost of 12 dollars. Take into account the LOSS OF VALUE of the FRN and you will see that BIG OIL is KEEPING ITS bottom line HIGH as the efficiency of the engines increase.
There was a contrived oil crisis in the 70’s and there is one today. Why? It is the GREED of BIG OIL! It takes less than 20 dollars to get oil out of the ground and refined into its product and delivered. It takes from 6 months to a year for a well from the day the drill head starts the hole until it produce oil. The Russians can do it in three mounts. Today’s wells exceed 6000 barrels a day, and one off shore platform can have over 20 SLANT WELL HEADS producing oil 24 hours a day.
The United States of America is sitting on the worlds largest coal reserves; it also has more crude oil than the Middle East. Recent finds in Montana exceed what is found in Saudi Arabia, and Pennsylvania has over 3 trillion cubic feet of Natural Gas yet to be pumped into the system. Alaska has extensive reserves yet CONGRESS has for years REFUSED to allow the release of this oil, because of RED TAPE and that they are under the control of ENVIRONMENTALIST groups. These groups want all Americans to ride bikes and live as the settlers did in the 1800. Congress continues to LIE regarding the time it takes to drill a well and get the oil into the system. They state that it would be ten years before wells drilled today could produce oil. This is a BOLD FACE LIE. Congress has prohibited drilling for the past two decades, if what they say is true and if they allowed drilling decades ago we would NOT HAVE FOUR DOLLAR A GALLON GAS PRICES, and HOME HEATING OIL WOULD NOT BE OVER FOUR DOLLARS A GALLON, THAT WILL CAUSE A HEATING CRISIS THIS WINTER, and SOME AMERICAN MAY FREEZE TO DEATH FOR LACK OF HEAT. CONGRESS IS TO BLAME IF THIS OCCURS.
Today’s advances in drilling insure a protected environment. The WILD CAT wells of the early 1900 are a thing of the past.
Environmentalist claim that the exhaust of power plants create TONS of CO2, HOWEVER, CO2 is a GAS and is measured in cubic feet NOT TONS. The advance scrubbing of the exhausts prevent most hydrocarbons from being suspended in the atmosphere. Most ALL the reasons given by environmentalist are not science, but an agenda to deprive Americans of their standard of living.
For MORE INFORMATION of the Truth About Big Oil visit
http://www.ilm-efx.5u.com/photo4.html
You Will Be Amazed, and make sure you click on the link GLOBAL WARMING and read what the ENVIRONMENTALIST do not want you to know about NON GLOBAL WARMING BY MAN.