CD...the same arguments were advanced to stop progress here 12 years ago...that oil would be coming on
line NOW if we had gone after it. Ditto with the refineries and nuke plants we SHOULD have been building...ditto with offshore drilling.
1. We NEED fossil
fuels now and will need them in the future.
You will NOT get them now. You will notice NO difference for over a decade. It willdo NOTHING to solve our problems NOW. And I doubt at current growth it will even supply 5% in 15 years.
2. We can get them in an environmentally friendly manner while we buy time for other technologies to develope and become competitive choices.
What time are you talking about? It provids almost NOTHING to our current use... that is CURRENT use.
3. Our ENEMIES sell us oil today and use the $$ against us. Every US oil dollar is one THEY don't get. PLUS they have LOW environmental standards so it is better for the planet if WE get the oil.
I am not bringing environmentalism into this. This has nothing to do with environmentalism, save the walruses, clean white snow... nothing. I am telling you that if I thought it was a stop gap measure at least for a while, I would be cool with it. But it cannot touch our current use. Refine coal to oil, build nuke plants, plant corn or other ethanol sources, invest in new technologies like solar and wind.... but oil here is not the answer. Proportionate to our needs, there is none.
4. Production of US oil means US jobs and tax revenues. ALASKANS want it by a 3/4 majority.
Alaskans want jobs and money. Cannot blame them for wanting it.
5. The wilderness will not be harmed.
Here is that environmental thing again. This has nothing to do with environmental impacts. I honestly think they could go in there and drill that with minimal impacts on the environment. The Caibou and polar bears have NOTHING to do with my argument.
6. We don't KNOW how much oil is REALLY there. All we have is the esimates. Check the original estimates on the bakken field vs. the current estimates now that techology exists to take advantage of it.
The current estimate from the PRO drill site is 'Recoverable oil estimates ranges from 600 million barrels at the low end to 9.2 billion barrels at the high end'. We burn almost 8 billion barrels/years RIGHT NOW! Let's say it is twice their current estimates. That is about 2 years of oil.
We've been stymied by environmentalists for 20 years from investing in our own country's oil and gas reserves and forced to burn coal instead of building clean nuke plants and stymied by NIMBY's and activists from building the refinery capacity we need. Now those chickens are home to roost and we're NOW being told that it will take too long to develop those things.
We are the only country in the world that acts like this. What is wrong with us?
Just because I am on the same side as the environmentalists does not mean that environmentalism is the reason I am against it. Build the nuke plants, build more hydro plants, invest in the ethanol industry, invest in changing coal to oil, invest in solar and wind and more efficient technologies. DO it NOW... not investing in something that will only give a 5% relief 15 years from now and take 15-30 years after the initial 15 years to recover. That is the better use of our financial resources a a country.
ERPS...no...that is 15-30 years we can LEASE that right to an oil company so that we can USE the public resource. We get the lease money and the taxes on each barrel...they get to make an average 8% profit. How do you propose to use this public resource otherwise? Keep it in the ground? have the government do the drilling? Since it is public...do Alaskan citizens get a vote?