Gavin Garry
EC 361 Section 1
Short Writing Assignment #4
Heintzelman
Question: Should we allow drilling in the Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge?
There are many things one needs to consider when determining the answer to this complex question. Things such as the actual amount of oil in the land matter a great deal in finding wether or not drilling is a viable source for oil. This directly ties into if the benefit of drilling itself is economically worth while for the land. Also, the status of the environment is another important question that must be asked; and which species are directly affected by this drilling process in the Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge. This ultimately brings up a cost to the environment that must be found to also determine if the benefit of drilling will outweigh …show more content…
However, there was one study done by the US Geological Survey in 2001 that gives a mean estimate of 7.06 billion barrels of oil. From what the report states this would suffice the oil consumption in the United States for one year if the oil consumption was equal to that of 2005. Yet, this amount of oil would only account for about 0.55% of the total amount of oil in the whole world! Furthermore, at the peak production of the Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge the amount of oil being extracted would merely account for 3.2% of domestic oil usage. This amount would not even be enough to lower the fuel cost significantly in the United States; even if it did then OPEC would step in and adjust the oil prices accordingly so that the price change would not be significant. This alone is the basis for the argument to drill in this area in the first place. Another argument is that jobs would be created by the oil drilling in the Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge. The article also states that this would take away from other jobs elsewhere and bring them to Alaska, but only for a short time during the oil drilling itself. This
EC 361 Section 1
Short Writing Assignment #4
Heintzelman
Question: Should we allow drilling in the Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge?
There are many things one needs to consider when determining the answer to this complex question. Things such as the actual amount of oil in the land matter a great deal in finding wether or not drilling is a viable source for oil. This directly ties into if the benefit of drilling itself is economically worth while for the land. Also, the status of the environment is another important question that must be asked; and which species are directly affected by this drilling process in the Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge. This ultimately brings up a cost to the environment that must be found to also determine if the benefit of drilling will outweigh …show more content…
However, there was one study done by the US Geological Survey in 2001 that gives a mean estimate of 7.06 billion barrels of oil. From what the report states this would suffice the oil consumption in the United States for one year if the oil consumption was equal to that of 2005. Yet, this amount of oil would only account for about 0.55% of the total amount of oil in the whole world! Furthermore, at the peak production of the Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge the amount of oil being extracted would merely account for 3.2% of domestic oil usage. This amount would not even be enough to lower the fuel cost significantly in the United States; even if it did then OPEC would step in and adjust the oil prices accordingly so that the price change would not be significant. This alone is the basis for the argument to drill in this area in the first place. Another argument is that jobs would be created by the oil drilling in the Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge. The article also states that this would take away from other jobs elsewhere and bring them to Alaska, but only for a short time during the oil drilling itself. This