On Jun 12, 4:20=A0am, trippin-2-8-track <rottedHo...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> TOP 10 REASONS TO SUP****T DEVELOPMENT IN ANWR
> 1. Only 8% of ANWR Would Be Considered for Exploration Only the 1.5
> million acre or 8% on the northern coast of ANWR is being considered
> for development. The remaining 17.5 million acres or 92% of ANWR will
> remain permanently closed to any kind of development. If oil is
> discovered, less than 2000 acres of the over 1.5 million acres of the
> Coastal Plain would be affected. That=B9s less than half of one percent
> of ANWR that would be affected by production activity.
>
> 2. Revenues to the State and Federal Treasury Federal revenues would
> be enhanced by billions of dollars from bonus bids, lease rentals,
> royalties and taxes. Estimates on bonus bids for ANWR by the Office of
> Management and Budget and the Department of Interior for the first 5
> years after Congressional approval are $4.2 billion. =A0Royalty and tax
> estimates for the life of the 10-02 fields were estimated by the
> Office of Management and Budget from =A0$152-237 billion.
>
> 3. Jobs To Be Created Between 250,000 and 735,000 ANWR jobs are
> estimated to be created by development of the Coastal Plain.
>
> 4. Economic Impact Between 1977 and 2004, North Slope oil field
> development and production activity contributed over $50 billion to
> the nations economy, directly impacting each state in the union.
>
> 5. America's Best Chance for a Major Discovery The Coastal Plain of
> ANWR is America's best possibility for the discovery of another giant
> "Prudhoe Bay-sized" oil and gas discovery in North America. U.S.
> Department of Interior estimates range from 9 to 16 billion barrels of
> recoverable oil.
>
> 6. North Slope Production in Decline The North Slope oil fields
> currently provide the U.S. with nearly 16% of it's domestic production
> and since 1988 this production has been on the decline. Peak
> production was reached in 1980 of two million barrels a day, but has
> been declining to a current level of 731,000 barrels a day.
>
> 7. Im****ted Oil Too Costly In 2007, the US im****ted an average of 60%
> of its oil and during certain months up to 64%. That equates to over
> $330 billion in oil im****ts. That=92s $37.75 million per hour gone out
> of our economy! =A0Factor in the cost to defend our im****ted oil, and
> the costs in jobs and industry sent abroad, the total would be nearly
> a trillion dollars.
>
> 8. No Negative Impact on Animals Oil and gas development and wildlife
> are successfully coexisting in Alaska 's arctic. For example, the
> Central Arctic Caribou Herd (CACH) which migrates through Prudhoe Bay
> has grown from 3000 animals to its current level of 32,000 animals.
> The arctic oil fields have very healthy brown bear, fox and bird
> populations equal to their surrounding areas.
>
> 9. Arctic Technology Advanced technology has greatly reduced the
> 'footprint" of arctic oil development. If Prudhoe Bay were built
> today, the footprint would be 1,526 acres, 64% smaller.
>
> 10. Alaskans Sup****t More than 75% of Alaskans favor exploration and
> production in ANWR. The democratically elected Alaska State
> Legislatures, congressional delegations, and Governors elected over
> the past 25 years have unanimously sup****ted opening the Coastal Plain
> of ANWR. =A0The Inupiat Eskimos who live in and near ANWR sup****t
> onshore oil development on the Coastal Plain.
>
> In general, the Republicans, Alaskans, some unions that see job gains,
> and some native tribes that will profit from the drilling have come
> out in favor . =A0Numbers are bandied about - those for drilling say
> that there is 30 years-worth of Saudi im****ts of oil available, and
> that drilling will enhance the national security and lessen dependence
> on im****ted oil (especially from the volatile Middle East.)
>
> http://www.time.com/time/columnist/waller/article/0,9565,170983,00.html
>
> Some Shaky Figures on ANWR Drilling
>
> Monday, Aug. 13, 2001 By DOUGLAS WALLER Article
>
> Congress loves to play fast and loose with numbers, particularly when
> one side or the other is using them to justify a bill. Two such cases
> came earlier this month, when the House approved oil drilling in
> Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. There are a total of 19
> million acres in the refuge, and in 1980 Congress set aside 1.5
> million of them along a strip of the refuge's northern Arctic Ocean
> coast for possible oil exploration. Oil companies and Alaska's
> congressional delegation have been anxious ever since to start
> drilling there. The oil companies believe 5 to 16 billion barrels of
> oil could be recovered there, while Alaskans are eager for the revenue
> that exploration would generate for their state. Environmentalists and
> most congressional Democrats have resisted drilling in the area
> because the required network of oil platforms, pipelines, roads and
> sup****t facilities, not to mention the threat of foul spills, would
> play havoc on wildlife. The coastal plain, for example, is a calving
> home for some 129,000 caribou.
>
> With U.S production at nearly a 50-year low and oil reserves in this
> country shrinking, George Bush has made ANWR's development a key part
> of his energy package. The House finally decided to approve drilling
> in the refuge, largely on the promise of two im****tant numbers. First,
> to calm moderates in his party, Republican Congressman John Sununu of
> New Hamp****re tacked an amendment to the energy bill limiting the
> drilling to just 2,000 of the 1.5 million acres along the coast plain.
> Then, the Teamsters muscled 36 Democrats into voting for the drilling,
> claiming it would create over 700,000 jobs.
>
> Wow! An oil field only one-fifth the size of Wa****ngton's Dulles
> International Air****t that'd provide more jobs than there are working
> men and women in Wyoming and Rhode Island? And would lower the
> nation's unemployment rate by a half percent? Sounds too good to be
> true.
>
> It may be. Turns out the 2,000 acres don't have to be contiguous and
> only the space of the equipment touching the ground is counted. Each
> drilling platform can take up as little as 10 acres. The pipelines are
> above ground. For space purposes, the amendment counts only the ground
> touched by the stanchions holding up the pipe. Road widths also are
> conveniently left out of the space limit. "It's a complete sham,"
> complains Allen Mattison, a spokesman for the Sierra Club which
> opposes drilling. "It's like a fi****ng net. If you count just the
> space of the string's width, that's small. But if you open up a
> fi****ng net and count the area it covers, that's much larger."
> Environmentalists complain that the House limit ends up allowing oil
> companies to spread out over practically the entire 1.5 million
> acres.
>
> As for the 700,000 jobs, that number comes from an 11-year-old study
> commissioned by the American Petroleum Institute that economists
> complain wildly inflates the employment potential. "It's just absurd,"
> says Eban Goodstein, an economist at Lewis and Clark College, who
> predicts the real job growth will be less than one-tenth that number.
>
> But the oil industry is sticking by the figures. "We're confident we
> can develop the resources that are at ANWR without an impact on the
> wildlife that lives there," insists Mark Rubin, general manager for
> exploration and production with the American Petroleum Institute. For
> his part, Sununu complains that it wouldn't matter what number he had
> put in his amendment. Drilling opponents "don't sup****t any
> disturbance of any land for any economic activity related to energy in
> the 19 million acres of ANWR," he says. "They think that 2,000 acres
> is too much. They think 200 acres is too much and they think two acres
> would be too much."
>
> Democrats who control the Senate vow that legislation permitting ANWR
> drilling will never see the light of day in that chamber. The oil
> industry and the Teamsters, however, hope they can change some minds
> once more =97 with the same numbers that worked in the House.
Drilling in ANWR is stupid.. but maybe not as stupid as you.
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