Sigh...
We must open up ANWR now because of high gas prices! proclaims the fine gentleman at Powerline. Those damn Democrats ruled by environmental special interest groups are preventing legislation to effectively lower gas prices!
Here's the gist of why drilling in ANWR is not a good idea. (No matter what the crackpots say)
It will take 10 years before ANWR even begins producing oil, and 25 years before it hits peak production. Definitely not going to change gas prices in the short term.
Thinking in the long term drilling still makes no sense. Not only does it give a false sense of security that consuming massive amounts of oil will be economical and possible, but ANWR will not help reduce gasoline prices or significantly increase our oil reserves. The United States consume 19,650,000 bbl/day. At its very peak ANWR would provide us with 876,000 bbl/day, and anywhere from 4.3 to 11.8 billion total recoverable bbl. That is only 4.5% of our daily consumption. Gas prices would only be affected by about 1 penny.
Of course convenient facts such as these don't interfere with the analysis of the fine folks at Powerline. They would rather just put up quotes from the "obstructionist" Democrats.
Read my other post about the world oil supply.
Interesting note: Then they go off into this nonsense about trillion bbl sitting in the Rocky Mountains and they even suggest a blog to look at! Wow, they are on top of their shit! Only what they are talking about is not crude oil but oil shale, which really isn't even oil since it has not gone through the "oil window".
World Energy describes oil shale and its potential impact:
Production of oil shale is still a few decades away and we shouldn't look too much into the eight companies that have leased land in CO to test economical shale development.
Here's the gist of why drilling in ANWR is not a good idea. (No matter what the crackpots say)
It will take 10 years before ANWR even begins producing oil, and 25 years before it hits peak production. Definitely not going to change gas prices in the short term.
Thinking in the long term drilling still makes no sense. Not only does it give a false sense of security that consuming massive amounts of oil will be economical and possible, but ANWR will not help reduce gasoline prices or significantly increase our oil reserves. The United States consume 19,650,000 bbl/day. At its very peak ANWR would provide us with 876,000 bbl/day, and anywhere from 4.3 to 11.8 billion total recoverable bbl. That is only 4.5% of our daily consumption. Gas prices would only be affected by about 1 penny.
Of course convenient facts such as these don't interfere with the analysis of the fine folks at Powerline. They would rather just put up quotes from the "obstructionist" Democrats.
Read my other post about the world oil supply.
Interesting note: Then they go off into this nonsense about trillion bbl sitting in the Rocky Mountains and they even suggest a blog to look at! Wow, they are on top of their shit! Only what they are talking about is not crude oil but oil shale, which really isn't even oil since it has not gone through the "oil window".
World Energy describes oil shale and its potential impact:
"Perhaps oil shale will eventually find a place in the world economy, but the energy demands of blasting, transport, crushing, heating and adding hydrogen, together with the safe disposal of huge quantities of waste material, are large. On a small scale, and with good geological and other favorable conditions, such as water supply, oil shale may make a modest contribution but so far shale oil remains the "elusive energy"."
Production of oil shale is still a few decades away and we shouldn't look too much into the eight companies that have leased land in CO to test economical shale development.
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