Back to Drilling

My good friend David Adams in Austin sent me an e-mail -- which he probably got from somewhere else and forwarded along -- blaming Democrats for not opening ANWR to drilling. I've painstakingly cut and paste the thing below. My comments follow afterward.

First, do you know what ANWR is?

ANWR = Arctic National Wildlife Refuge

Now, a comparison:

And some perspective:

NOTE WHERE THE PROPOSED AREA IS:

THIS IS WHAT THE DEMOCRATS, LIBERALS AND "GREENS" SHOW YOU WHEN THEY TALK ABOUT ANWR.

And they are right: these ARE photographs of ANWR.

ISN'T ANWR BEAUTIFUL? WHY SHOULD WE DRILL HERE (AND DESTROY) THIS BEAUTIFUL PLACE?

WELL -- THAT'S NOT EXACTLY THE TRUTH.

Do you remember the map?

The map showed that the proposed drilling area is in the ANWR Coastal Plain.

Do those photographs look like a coastal plain to you?

WHAT'S GOING ON HERE? THE ANSWER IS SIMPLE --

THAT IS NOT WHERE THEY ARE WANTING TO DRILL!

THIS IS WHAT THE PROPOSED EXPLORATION AREA ACTUALLY LOOKS LIKE IN THE WINTER:

AND THIS IS WHAT IT ACTUALLY LOOKS LIKE IN THE SUMMER:

HERE ARE A COUPLE [OF] SCREEN SHOTS FROM GOOGLE EARTH:

AS YOU CAN SEE, THE AREA WHERE THEY ARE TALKING ABOUT DRILLING IS A BARREN WASTELAND.

OH -- AND THEY SAY THAT THEY ARE CONCERNED ABOUT THE EFFECT ON THE LOCAL WILDLIFE --

HERE IS A PHOTO (SHOT DURING THE SUMMER) OF THE "DEPLETED WILDLIFE" SITUATION CREATED BY DRILLING AROUND PRUDHOE BAY -- DON'T YOU THINK THAT THE CARIBOU REALLY HATE THAT DRILLING?


HERE'S THAT SAME SPOT DURING THE WINTER:

HEY, THIS BEAR SEEMS TO REALLY HATE THE PIPELINE NEAR PRUDHOE BAY:

NOW, WHY DO YOU THINK THAT THE DEMOCRATS ARE LYING ABOUT ANWR?

REMEMBER WHEN AL GORE SAID THAT THE GOVERNMENT SHOULD WORK TO ARTIFICIALLY RAISE GAS PRICES TO $5.00 A GALLON?

WELL --

AL GORE AND HIS FELLOW DEMOCRATS HAVE ALMOST REACHED THEIR GOAL!

NOW THAT YOU KNOW THAT THE DEMOCRATS HAVE BEEN LYING, WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO ABOUT IT?

YOU CAN START BY FORWARDING THIS TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW -- SO THAT THEY WILL KNOW THE TRUTH.

[My comments] The truth? David, must we go over this again? As I've written before, it's not the Democrats who hold the keys that drive the oil price engine in this country. God forbid if either political party truly had that much power! This is a case of supply and demand.

There is no American oil market -- the oil market is global. Anything pumped out of the ground in Alaska will not just affect gas prices here, but worldwide. And, since the amount pumped out of the ground will equal only about 1% of the world's supply, it won't have that great an impact.

Further, it will take so long to bring any oil wells online -- after environmental, political, and economic impediments have been overcome -- that gas prices, by way of inflation alone, will likely be well over where they are now. Any net effect of a few cents in 10-15 years will be of little to no value to the American consumer. Further, the only people who will come out in better shape than before drilling in ANWR started are the oil companies and the politicians who enabled them.

F T S

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If the US Government was serious about bringing down oil prices, it should do everything it could to reduce demand for petroleum. An increased demand for alternative and renewable energy sources would do far more to reduce gas prices in the same period of time than drilling in ANWR.