Monday, February 9, 2009

What negative effects affect drilling in Alaska's ANWR

In the article"Why Drilling in Alaska's ANWR Is a Bad Idea," the author put forward 4 factors to support her article. First she said “drilling can’t produce enough oil;” Just because the amount of oil production can’t meet the amount of oil consumption which almost tripled production. Second, it will not decrease oil prices; as the economist said “world oil demand between 2010 and 2015 will increase by over 7 percent, and 30 percent by 2030. Third, it would damage the environment if drilling for oil in the ANWR could bring harm to wildlife and ecosystems. Last, Alaska’s ANWR is not the only place to drill, because there are millions of acres for drilling that have not been explored yet by oil companies.
Among the author’s four views, I will not agree with the last one extraordinarily. Just because something isn’t as perfect as she thought doesn’t mean it should be drilled in everywhere. What would she think if an oil company found a large amount of oil under her home? Would she be happy that she is going to do the American people good by letting them tear down her house so that others can pay less at the pump? Oil consumers don’t care and don’t know where the oil comes from. She is not going to be famous for having the original place where oil companies found oil. Even if she gets a high profit, she will spend much time constructing her new house. This will cost her a lot of energy.
The oil companies’ bottom line is their money, but to say that they are only just interested in exploring oil is a ridiculous excuse. They don’t know the earth’s surface is not only the universe’s houses but also the earth’s underground is animals’ house. Harming the wildlife of that area would be an immoral behavior; we should treat animals equally.
Keeping gas prices high is the only way people will try to let oil run out slowly and find a new type of energy source. This is a project that will cost over a billion American dollars to reduce the cost of oil by roughly fifty cents a barrel. This is assuming, of course, that there are resources to be found. According to Anwr.org, 200 million barrels of fuel can be taken from ANWR and production could last for 25 years, maybe longer. As much as we may dislike it, oil prices must stay high in order for the domestic market to demand alternative energy resources. We realize oil will run out one day but at that time we may have invented a new type of energy source, so we have no choice but to drill oil right now.
If we produce more domestic oil possibilities, such as ANWR, we need even less imported oil, the price of oil will be maintained as the same as before because quite simply, our use of petroleum is not going to simply disappear. Once oil is abundant and plentiful and relatively inexpensive, Americans will climb back in their Expeditions and Hummers and go on as usual.

Canter, S. (2008, September 11). Why drilling in Alaska’s ANWR is a bad idea. Automobiles & Fuels.

Retrieved February 3, 2009 from Google.

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