I write a column in my college newspaper and 2 terms ago I wrote an article about ANWR and gas prices that is still aplicable today. take a look if ya want, thanks!

now, i gotta tell ya. I live in Eugene Oregon, home of the hippies and tree huggers and environmentalist cults. I do not side with liberals or conservatives, I am totally NON-PARTISAN. lol. so dont go off on me, k? I just thought I'd share my answer, or agreement to the idea to end the high gas prices.

"ANWR is the ANsWeR"
This week the news stations are all running about like Chicken Little yelling, “The gas prices are falling! The gas prices are falling!” Woo hoo a whole six cents drop over the last two weeks. The cable news networks said little when gas prices jumped fifty cents a gallon in one week, just a month ago.

This price drop happens right on the heels of G.W.’s hand in hand stroll, and lovey dovey weeklong honeymoon with the Arabs. (Another incredible coincidence?) No one is sure what deals were made with the Arabs, or if any deals were made at all. That will come out later, but for now were all happy to save a few pennies on gas, no matter what we had to give up to get it. The environmentalists would rather us sell our soul to the Arabs than to Drill our own land to get the oil. How selfish is that?

One of George W. Bush’s few ideas I like is drilling Alaska for oil. Take it or leave it, America is not going to grow out of our obsession with automobiles for a long, long time. And unless we want to remain dependant on other countries for oil we better get it ourselves. That’s why we bought Alaska in the first place. OK, OK, so it wasn’t for oil, but Alaska was in fact purchased so that America could dominate the fur trade. We wanted to hunt and kill every fur-bearing animal in Alaska. They set aside the Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge, AKA ANWR, to protect the caribou breeding grounds to keep the supply of furry critters flowing. This area has nothing to do with preserving wildlife now that were not slaughtering for fur anymore.

People have a misconceived picture of Alaska in their heads of a small snowy place up north. That it is a fragile environment and that the area to be drilled is huge. The area they want to drill is huge, if it was in Rhode Island, but we’re talking about the largest state in the U.S. with a coastline of 6,640 miles and an interior of 656,425 square miles. What’s that mean? It’s two and a half times bigger than Texas, and we drilled the hell out of Texas didn’t we? The specific area in Alaska we want to drill is as big as Lane County, and is in the heart of the Alaskan national wildlife refuge. This image will help you put it into perspective. .

(image missing, sorry!)


Now, do we honestly think the caribou wont get out of the way when we go to plunge the drill into the ground? Are they going to just lie there and get harpooned by our machinery? Get real! When we start to develop that area for oil production the caribou will move to another area, later they will accustom themselves to the drilling crews and continue to live right there. That is the case in the oil fields in Texas, Montana, and everywhere else. The animals just go on with their business as if the humans weren’t there at all.

The land will rebound and the animals will adapt, they’re good at it. We as a nation keep saying “Our land is too good to drill for oil, we’d rather buy it from someone else.” What does this do to the world economy? Imagine the jobs and available resources that would abound once we get over our selfishness and just get our oil from our own land. In every other aspect in our personal finances, when someone keeps raising the price of the product, you find a less expensive supplier, or you get it yourself. There are no other oil suppliers, so its time for us to get it ourselves.

 

Who should we go after to build & operate New Refineries since this is a major reason (so they say) for the ever climbing prices ?

 

The same people that build them for us in the Gulf of Mexico. Or anywhere else.

 

Very well writen. I agree with you 100%.

 

isn't that what the enviromentalists said whenever we built the pipeline? "it's gonna kill all the caribou" but instead the caribou made their nests/beds or whatever under the pipe cuz it was warm and the pipe instead increased the population of caribou cuz less young died from the weather. he's not kidding about Alaska being huge either, what do the enviromentalists want with all that part of alaska anyhow?

and another thing, yes we have enough crude oil in the U.S. to supply all we need, but we can't refine it fast enough, and we don't build more refineries cuz of the enviromentalists again right? polutopn laws or something?

-matt

 

WAIT A MINUTE!!! A six cents price drop? Around here in NC it has gone up over 20 cents in the last week. As far as the article, I agree 100%, and so does most of americans if they were asked. This country is in dire straits if something, anything is not done. Fuel prices affect everything. Period. And at $2.59 it took almost $20 just to fill my lawnmower!

 

Interesting post...

But, as I recall and I could be wrong --- just ask my wife, we don't use the the oil we drill in Alaska for gasoline because of high sulfur content. Also, where did you get the reason for buying Alaska in the first place -- never heard of that one?

Anyway, I agree with the other posters that if its so tough to build a refinery here then build it in Mexico. But, I don't think that is the real problem. The oil companies have so much clout in DC they could push through anything they wanted to and there are plenty of communities that would welcome high paying industrial jobs.

 

I think all possiblities should be explored, including ANWR, but I don't think it's "the answer" to our high oil and gas prices. Even if they started drilling there tomorrow it will be an estimated 15 years or more before oil and gas production from ANWR reaches the market.

As an aside, does anybody else thing that maybe the oil companies don't want to build any more refineries...that maybe they are using the environmentalists and thier protests as an excuse not to build? Just an idea, but I sometimes wonder if they don't want to build new refineries because they wont have us "in their pockets"...

 

We have regulated our selves into this mess. The "not in my backyard" mentality with refineries and drilling has finally bit us in the back side. There is plenty of oil off the coast of California but the rich yuppies in Santa Barbara dont want to look at the wells off shore. Refineriers have been shut down here in California as well because of small accidents (no injuries and no evironmental damage, just worries about it), and concerns of pollution.

To live the life we are used to living we need to have power plants, refineries, oil wells, & other industry. I wouldn't be happy if a major industrial complex went up in my back yard, but I wouldn't bitch about it if I bought my house right next to one that was already there. I have seen this time and time again. Not just with industry but race tracks and airports. People buy a house right next to one and then bitch about it until it gets shut down.

There are only a few things we can blame on the President. He kept filling the stragic reserves during record high prices. He didn't fight hard enough for expanded discovery and increased capabilities. And finally he didn't do anything to stream line supply. There is no reason to have 17 different blends of fuel. New York shouldnt have its own blend and California shouldnt have its own blend, etc, etc. Come up with a summer blend and a winter blend and everyone use it.

I think right now to combat the prices we are seeing we need to conserve. But I can't conserve by going out and buying a more efficient vehicle. I can't really drive any less. So to conserve, we need to step up to more bio diesel and blended gasoline. E85 would mean an immediate 15% reduction in gasoline usage. A bio-diesel blend that was 80/20 would be a 20% reduction. We are using the same amout of "fuel" but less fossil fuel per gallon. Atleast with diesel we can eventually get away from fossil fuel all together. Bio Diesel is the wave of the future. We can stop farm subsidies because they will be the new "oil" industry.

In the mean time there are lots of things we can do to help lessen the blow. Keep your vehicle tuned up. Drive with a light foot. My V10 is capable of 15mpg but driving normal for me I only get 10mpg. CHANGE YOUR DRIVING STYLE, right there is a 50% increase in fuel economy. The other thing I am going to do is take off my 305/70/16's BFG muds and put back on the stock wheels and tires.

I posted this in another thread.

 

To heck with all this talk about refineries, oil wells, power plants and all that other stuff. Diesel fuel is a major part in our livelyhood (trucker).

I want to know why it is that diesel costs more than regular unleaded, and in some area's more than premium unleaded, when I know it costs less to manufacture diesel.

Any of you oldtimers (pre-suv craze) will remember when diesel was ALWAYS less per gallon than regular. Now-a-dayz, you can't find a station where diesel is cheaper than regular.

I attribute this to greed. If the new trend is personal diesel vehicles, hey, why not charge more.

Sorry - had to vent because this hurts in MY Pocket.

 

@ Carlene: Diesel costs as much or more than gas because the petroleum that is used for diesel could be used for gas. The oil companies are just spreading the price gouging across the board.

 

I am by no means an expert so I apologize if this is bunk. It seems to me that the reason we have record fuel prices has more to do with greedy commodities brokers using the war as an excuse to cash in on the spot market rather than a sudden low supply of fuel. We seem to have ample stocks of all fuels and I find it hard to believe that refinery output has become such a bigger problem this year than last. Opening up drilling is a good long term solution however.

 

Understood. But, all spreading aside, it is still cheaper for them to make diesel than it is to make gas. The gouging comes in because the general public discovered that diesel motors get better mileage and have better longivity - hence - increased market, increased price = greed.

 

Yes, it amounts to greed any way you look at it. Too bad I have to leave my beloved Bronco home most days and drive my Wife's...Hyundai...to work.

 

Its not really cheaper to make diesel, it actually costs all about the same. All fuels refined from crude go through the same "hydro-cracking" process...

Alaskan sweet crude and Texas Intermediate crude is some the best crude for making top quality gasoline. The oil that we buy from the Middle East & Venezuela usually ends up as road tar and other heavy oils, like diesel fuel.