ANWR: Both Sides of the Story
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There seems to be a lot of debate going on about whether we should begin drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska, as well as many rumors. The veteran read an excellent article today on the New York Times website that gives some facts and opinions from both sides of the debate. First of all, Congress will probably allow the drilling, so it's mostly up to the oil companies now. The oil companies, however, are still unsure of how to proceed. They concede that no one really knows how much oil is there to be found. An estimate of the exploration involved before any real drilling can be started puts the exploration at at least two years. Some companies seem more than willing to go for the black gold, but many are hesitant, as they are unsure of the profitability of this "experiment".
The environmental side seems mostly worried about the prospect of disrupting caribou herds in the area. One herd of caribou has continued to grow at a steady rate near the existing oil derricks nearby, but another herd has experienced a significant dropoff in reproduction, currently at about 120,000. Another area of debate is how much land would be taken up by a drilling operation. Most of the oil companies claim that they can drill diagonally for quite some distance and won't need much room, but some studies have also shown that most rigs can only drill a bit over a mile horizontally, in which case the surface operation may have to be much more wide and scattered than current oil company estimates claim. This veteran still holds that we already have alternative energy sources available to us, and we should begin implementing them now to offset the high petroleum price. Unfortunately, big oil tends to lobby against this course of action, as they are certain to lose profits in the process. As far as ANWR, no verified estimate is really available on how much oil exists beneath the serene Alaskan wilderness. Drilling will have to wait for decisions, exploration and construction that will take years before producing results. Why don't we start using some of the alternative resources we already have freely available? Fight the oil companies: their profit, right now, is our loss.
There seems to be a lot of debate going on about whether we should begin drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska, as well as many rumors. The veteran read an excellent article today on the New York Times website that gives some facts and opinions from both sides of the debate. First of all, Congress will probably allow the drilling, so it's mostly up to the oil companies now. The oil companies, however, are still unsure of how to proceed. They concede that no one really knows how much oil is there to be found. An estimate of the exploration involved before any real drilling can be started puts the exploration at at least two years. Some companies seem more than willing to go for the black gold, but many are hesitant, as they are unsure of the profitability of this "experiment".
The environmental side seems mostly worried about the prospect of disrupting caribou herds in the area. One herd of caribou has continued to grow at a steady rate near the existing oil derricks nearby, but another herd has experienced a significant dropoff in reproduction, currently at about 120,000. Another area of debate is how much land would be taken up by a drilling operation. Most of the oil companies claim that they can drill diagonally for quite some distance and won't need much room, but some studies have also shown that most rigs can only drill a bit over a mile horizontally, in which case the surface operation may have to be much more wide and scattered than current oil company estimates claim. This veteran still holds that we already have alternative energy sources available to us, and we should begin implementing them now to offset the high petroleum price. Unfortunately, big oil tends to lobby against this course of action, as they are certain to lose profits in the process. As far as ANWR, no verified estimate is really available on how much oil exists beneath the serene Alaskan wilderness. Drilling will have to wait for decisions, exploration and construction that will take years before producing results. Why don't we start using some of the alternative resources we already have freely available? Fight the oil companies: their profit, right now, is our loss.
posted by Mad Mod at
3/20/2005 06:12:00 PM
1 Comments:
On immigrants in this country whether they belong or not? How do think the indians feel? Having the freedom to roam this country at there will and now having to live in dry reservations while watching people coming from another country having crossed a whole ocean to get here and taking over a country that did'nt belong to them. I agree that there are some that cross the borders create problems such as belonging the gangs
and other things but these people leave millions of dollars in taxes that they cannot receive because of their status, so whats the beef if they receive some social services. They pay for it with the tax money that they can't legaly receive so basically they are paying for some if not most of their services.
been there
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