ANWR Email Propaganda

Some of you may have received emails lately with the subject: ANWR Deception. These emails disparage the democrats and the green point of view in general. While I'm not here to defend democrats or anyone else, I feel it is important to know the facts since most email forwards are completely bogus. This one doesn't lie necessarily, but it does present quite a bit of propaganda.

I present the following numbers:

The US imports around 5 billion barrels of oil per year. The US uses 7.6 billion barrels per year.

7 billion barrels is what we can expect in total production from ANWR at the outside top top top estimate. Over the life of drilling, which will be well beyond 30 years, we can expect the price of oil to drop about $1 per barrel as a result of drilling in ANWR. Oil is already $140 per barrel. If ANWR is allowed to be drilled now, we can expect a drop in gas prices of about 5 cents per gallon, in ten years.

We don't need oil from ANWR. It won't help us much anyway. The whole flapping thing will give us less than 1 year's worth (that's 2005 numbers) of oil, and it will take more than thirty years to get all of it. To put it in perspective, the Strategic Oil Reserve holds about one tenth of the total volume of what ANWR holds. It won't help us, it won't lower gas prices, and it sure won't help us get rid of our addiction to oil. Not that I am particularly against drilling there, but it would be like standing on the stern of the Titanic with a bucket.

I say we save it for say thirty years in the future when we need a source of plastic.
WiredForStereo