ANWR?
The argument about whether or not we should drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) is a long-debated one. It is certain to heat up even more with oil prices hovering near record highs at $80 a barrel. Considering how much oil we import every day, it makes sense to try to extract as much as we can from domestic sources. Putting the wildlife issue aside for a bit, does it even make sense to drill and invest in ANWR oil? It depends on who you ask, but a lot of facts about the situation lead me to believe that it is not the course of action to take.
If congress were to give the go-ahead to drill in ANWR today, it would be about 10 years before oil gets pumped out of the ground. It would then be another 10-12 years before the production would be maximized. According to a 2004 Energy Information Administration (EIA) report, the production would peak at about 876,000 barrels a day. At the current consumption rate of over 20 million barrels per day, it becomes clear that ANWR will only slightly lessen our dependence on foreign oil sources. Banking on ANWR as a major source of energy for our future is an extremely naïve plan.
Of course, there are people still fighting tough for opening the refuge to drilling. They point to the fact that domestic production will continue to decline over the next few decades and how imports will increase. They also point out that we will be relying on imports even more heavily if we do not open ANWR. These are all true statements, but they need to look at it from a different perspective.
Maybe we should be concerned with actually using less of the stuff, instead of fighting over this field which will hardly do much to help the cause. I could even see ANWR oil hurting us, as it would give our politicians some false solution to hang their hopes on. We would see even less action on the conservation and alternative issues than we do now. We should be creating real solutions, not temporary cover-ups. Even a slight change in America’s wasteful habits will do much, much more than ANWR ever can for us.