An honest look at the facts surrounding ANWR drilling

The usual suspects are all in a dither over the Senate's passage of drilling for oil in ANWR. Most of these hand wringers have never been to the North Slope, let alone ANWR, to see the environmeantal controls in place. Nor have they managed to do any research into how well the local flora and fauna have co-existed with the drilling and the pipeline. Alsaka Govenor Frank H. Murkowski looks at the facts of drilling in ANWR.

"The benefits to Washington state's economy will continue to grow if Congress approves oil development in a small section of Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Washington's five oil refineries process billions of dollars of Alaska crude, supplying consumers throughout the Northwest with energy. Washington alone consumes 18 million gallons of petroleum daily. Apparently, not everyone is traveling to their destinations on bicycles. If Alaska's crude oil were not available, Washington state would be getting its oil supply from Middle Eastern nations in foreign ships with foreign crews, built in foreign shipyards.

More than half of this country's oil comes from foreign sources, particularly OPEC. America needs American oil — to reduce our dependence on the foreign oil that threatens our national security. We must develop energy sources in America, for the American consumer, while safeguarding American security."

Not that these econuts would take note of the lower standards of foreign oil production. Nor do they seem to care that America is far too dependent on oil from non-American sources.

"Alaska's environmental standards are the highest in the world, and yet Washington Sens. Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray — opponents of ANWR drilling — have repeatedly declined my invitations to visit ANWR and see firsthand this area of national importance.

Your senators would have witnessed that Alaska mandates the highest environmental standards in the world. Technological advances in environmentally friendly drilling, developed in Alaska, have been transferred to other locations around the globe, lifting the bar for the entire industry."

As I posted upfront, the great majority of those opposed to drilling in ANWR have never seen any of the North Slopeoperations or the strict environmenatl standards Alaska imposses. They blindly say no and tow the leftist line.

"Protecting the environment is a global issue, not just an Alaskan issue. Stopping the exploration of ANWR only shifts oil production to other parts of the world where environmental standards are lower.

Advances in directional drilling make the footprint in ANWR extremely small. Use of only 2,000 acres for ANWR development is authorized in the House energy bill, yet ANWR is 19 million acres, about the size of Colorado.

Federal biologists began surveying the Central Arctic caribou herd in 1978, after the Alaska pipeline began operation. Since then, the herd has grown from 5,000 to over 32,000 animals. Alaska has proven it can be responsible; wildlife in ANWR will continue to coexist with cautious oil and gas exploration."

Once again, as I posted up front, the environment has not been damaged. In the case of the caribou, they appear to have thrived.

"Critics falsely claim ANWR will only produce six months of oil. This incorrectly assumes ANWR would be the only oil field in operation in the world. In fact, ANWR oil will make significant contributions to the nation's energy supply for decades, replacing what we import from Saudi Arabia for the next 20 years. To bring this statistic home, ANWR alone would supply the state of Washington with all of its oil needs for 15 years.

Some estimates use the most pessimistic production figures by counting only 3.5 billion barrels of oil. The U.S. Geological Survey estimates between 12 billion and 32 billion barrels exist in the ANWR "1002 area," of which between 6 billion and 16 billion barrels are recoverable using current technology."

As always they econut crowd tries to make figures lie to their advantage. The figures sited by the Governor is for current technology. There is no reason to expect that technology will remain stagnant, so there may be more recoverable oil in the future.

The Governor goes on to say that he supports finding alternative energy solutions, as do I. But we need to have enough energy to get us through the time frame it will take to develop these alternative energy sources. We must drill in ANWR. - Sailor