Artic Oil

Artic oil

I am writing in response to the environmentalist on the subject of drilling for oil in Alaska's Artic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). Their argument is that if we open up ANWR to the oil drilling companies there would be no end. They think if we open up these conservation areas then others could eventually have the same fate. They want to leave this beautiful 1.5 million acre tundra untouched by man and pass on the legacy of preserving America's natural wildlife refuges to the next generation. I don't disagree with everything that they are stating. I have done some research through the U.S.G.S. and various other sources. I have found that the amount of oil that could be economically recovered is estimated at 16 billion barrels of oil and would take approximately 10 years to reach the market. The anti-drilling activist will tell you this, but what they won't tell you are the benefits of drilling for oil in ANWR.

Allowing companies to drill in Alaska's Northern Slope would boost the revenues of American oil companies that would like to explore the area for petroleum. Expansion of the oil industry in the Northern Slope would also create thousands of jobs and decrease U.S. dependency on oil imports from Middle Eastern countries. This will in turn help to lower the increasing gasoline prices for the American public. As the United States' dependency on petroleum imports rises the oil fields in Alaska are quickly becoming much more significant. Successful drilling in Alaska's Northern Slope would also bring in enormous amounts of revenue to federal, state, and local governments.

How the question regarding should we drill in the northern slopes is answered depends on who answers it. Most people agree that the oil ban does keep oil prices higher than they could be. They agree that if the ban is repealed it will create a large number of jobs and tax revenue, and that it would reduce the United States dependency on petroleum imports. What people don't agree on is the extent to which oil drilling would threaten the wildlife that live in the area and that it would be disastrous if an oil spill occurred. Because of the geographic location of the ANWR, any oil spill could be disastrous. It would be very difficult to clean up because of the cold weather in the Northern Slope. Animals that might be influenced by an oil spill include polar bears, caribou, and a number of fish that inhabit the water near it.

The State of Alaska is too often portrayed on maps as an inset along with Hawaii and it is rarely portrayed to scale. When you look at the enormity of the state, keep in mind that almost 140 million acres in Alaska are already protected in established conservation areas. This is an area larger than the states of California and New York put together. The Arctic National