1. Only 8% of ANWR would be considered for exploration. - Only the 1.5 million acre 10-02 Area
(8% of ANWR’s total area), is being considered for exploration. The
remaining 17.5 million acres of ANWR is permanently off limits to any
exploration. If oil is discovered, current legislation allows only
allows 2000 acres of the 10-02 Area can be used for surface structures.
That’s less than half of 1% of ANWR’s total area can be impacted by an
oil field. 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. Lease sale revenues alone are
estimates by the Office of Management and Budget at between $4-6
billion. Royalties and taxes are estimated @$100per barrel to be
between $84.6-237.5 billion. 3. Jobs to be Created
– Materials, services and infrastructure needed for oil production in
the 10-02 will create hundreds of thousands of manufacturing and high
skilled service jobs nationwide. Every state in the nation would be impacted by this. 4. Economic Impact
– Between 1977 and 2004 the Arctic oil industries spent over $50
billion within the nation’s economy. Almost all products and
infrastructure used in Arctic oil field production come from the lower
48 states. 5. America’s Best Chance for a Major Discovery – The United States Geological Survey (USGS) 1998 study on ANWR shows the 10-02 Area Coastal Plain of ANWR
has the highest potential for a super-large oil field of any other
place on the North American continent. If you are going to explore for
oil, the best chance to find it, in the largest quantity, with the
smallest footprint would be the 10-02 Area. 6. North Slope Production in Decline
– Oil from Prudhoe Bay oil fields only 50 miles to the west of ANWR
have been in decline for nearly a decade. The Trans-Alaska Pipeline
(TAPS) is 1/3rd full at 630,000 bpd. Alaskan North Slope oil supplies
the West Coast of America and without new oil the TAPS will eventually
be shut down and removed by law, thus stranding all Arctic oil. TAPS
has the capacity to supply 1/10th of the nations daily consumption of
oil. 7. Imported Oil Too Costly – Today the US imports 61% of our oil from abroad.
That represents over $400 billion dollars a year being sent abroad.
Oil imports are the single largest contributor to our national debt.
Every barrel of ANWR oil would replace a barrel imported from abroad.
With ANWR oil the jobs, the money, and the infrastructure stay at home. 8. No Negative Impact to Animals
– Oil and gas development and wildlife are successfully coexisting in
Alaska’s Arctic. The Central Arctic Caribou Herd migrates directly
through the Prudhoe Bay oil field has grown from 5000 animals in the
early 70s to well over 66,000 animals today. The Arctic oil fields are
monitored daily by State and Federal wildlife specialists and are home
to a very healthy brown bear, fox, musk oxen, bird and fish populations
equal or better to the surrounding area. 9. Arctic Technology = Advanced Technology
– Arctic exploration technology is the most advanced in the world. It
represents the cutting edge in minimal impact with maximum return.
Advanced drilling technology has allowed the footprint of development to shrink over 64%
in the past 30 years while doubling technical rates of return to over
60%. ANWR development would increase and better this trend. 10. Alaskans Support
– Over 78% of Alaskans favor exploration and production on the Coastal
Plain of ANWR. Over the past 30 years almost every member of the
democratically elected Alaska State Legislature, every single Alaskan
Congressional delegate, and every single Alaskan Governor has supported
environmentally sensitive development of the 10-02 Area of ANWR. ANWR
development is not a partisan issue in Alaska, it is strongly supported
by all. Offshore Drilling Rigs Those who disparage offshore drilling - and seem eager to ban it -
ignore that the Gulf of Mexico accounts for one-third of U.S. oil
production. Without domestic production, we would be spending even more
on imported oil - which is already running $1.5 billion a day. Any
sensible response to the explosion on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig -
and the huge oil spill that's fouling gulf waters - needs to recognize
two facts. First, the demand for oil is expected to increase unless we
can develop the alternative fuels quickly such as that are in this plan.
Second,
America cannot suddenly stop offshore drilling. One best places in
the United States to find new oil is in the gulf's untapped deepwater
areas, in the Atlantic, and off Alaska. These three drilling areas
combined hold as much as 22 billion barrels of oil, which is more than
our current total estimated reserves. This oil would help meet U.S.
energy needs for decades. But if these areas are closed to oil
production, we would need to import more oil from overseas, probably
from countries that are nationalistic and, in some cases, hostile. Some
of the countries are run by despots like Venezuela's Hugo Chavez. The
reality is that the cards are stacked against us. U.S. investor-owned
oil companies hold only 6 percent of the world's petroleum reserves,
while state-owned national oil companies in Venezuela, Iran, China,
Nigeria, India, Russia, Saudi Arabia and other countries control 80
percent of the reserves. Coincidentally, even some of these countries
are drilling for oil in Cuban waters just 50 miles from Florida.That just doesn't make any sense what so ever. The
Gulf of Mexico is among the best areas to which U.S. companies still
have access. Drilling for oil in the gulf is an opportunity we cannot
afford to squander. Our energy security and economic growth depend on
it. Producing oil safely is essential. The offshore rig explosion
that cost the lives of 11 men and threatened the gulf shores was
such a shock that it has restarted a national debate on safety. To
its credit, the Obama administration has mounted a coordinated response
to the accident. One is to break up the federal Minerals Management
Service, the agency responsible for both regulating safety and raising
revenue from offshore drilling. Creating a separate entity to oversee
safety and environmental responsibilities is sensible and logical. Meanwhile,
the oil industry has established two task forces to examine its own
safety standards and procedures. We can expect oil firms to learn useful
lessons from the accident, keeping in mind that any form of energy
development poses safety and environmental challenges that must be
faced, resolved and overcome. How to maintain stable energy production
amid sweeping technological change is a problem our government is only
beginning to appreciate. It's an unfortunate fact that no energy source is perfect. Imposing a ban on offshore oil development would be a mistake of historic proportions. The
fact is, before the Deepwater Horizon capsized there had not been a
large oil spill from an offshore drilling rig in 40 years. The National
Research Council reports that offshore drilling accounts for only 1
percent of the oil in U.S. waters, and tankers and pipelines only 4
percent. By way of comparison, one-third of the oil in U.S.
waters comes from other shipping, and 62 percent from natural seepage
through the ocean floor. Nevertheless, some politicians will be
tempted to call for a moratorium on offshore drilling. A more measured,
less politically galvanizing response would achieve the best results.
The question isn't whether to drill offshore, but how to do it more
safely. There is a simple relationship that ties a nation's
economic prosperity to its energy availability, and that's why
government should not prevent the development of our energy resources.
The oil industry accounts for a whopping 7.2 percent of GDP and 9.2
million American jobs - something we should keep in mind as we debate
the future of offshore drilling. |