Let's Drill In Alaska!

Jay Bookman writes in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. http://www.ajc.com/blogs/content/shared-blogs/ajc/bookman/ ANWR and $4 gasoline By Jay Bookman Friday, May 23, 2008, 11:03 AM The Atlanta Journal-Constitution The prospect of $4 gasoline has no doubt convinced folks to stay a little closer to home over the holiday weekend, and it has also gotten people more than a little angry at politicians who let us get into this situation. So here’s a little data to help clarify things: For decades, the Republicans have rebuffed calls for greater energy conservation and fuel efficiency with one line of attack that they have repeated over and over in various forms: We don’t need to conserve, we need to drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge… If only those silly environmentalists would let us drill in ANWR…. Why do those liberals love caribou more than humans…. Why do those greenies want us to stay dependent on foreign oil…. Yadayadayada. Well, now we know the truth. The federal Energy Information Agency, a branch of the Energy Department and part of the Bush administration, has released a study of the impact of opening ANWR on oil prices. The study can be found at the EIA’s website. Here’s what the EIA found: At peak production somewhere around 2030, oil from ANWR would reduce the price of oil — now about $135 a barrel — by a whoppingly huge 75 cents. That’s a decline of 0.55 percent, or barely two cents on a gallon of gasoline. And we’d probably never see even that tiny reduction, the EIA warned. “Assuming that world oil markets continue to work as they do today, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) could neutralize any potential price impact of ANWR oil production by reducing its oil exports by an equal amount,” it concluded. Just thought you’d want to know….