Dec. 6, 2010 – PPM – Arctic National Park
This week's PET PEEVE MONDAY (PPM) is about the coming debate about the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
President Obama is being urged to bestow national monument status on the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for its 50th anniversary in what some say would finally put the refuge's coastal plain beyond the reach of oil companies.
National monument status could put an estimated 11 billion barrels of recoverable oil beyond the grasp of oil companies forever.
Here's my PEEVE. If we are not going to extract the oil, let's sell the property. I'm sure the Russians, the Chinese, or even the Arabs would like to buy this oil-rich area.
Whenever a company is in debt, they sell assets to retire that debt. Sometimes they sell plants, they sell product lines, or they sell property or property rights. Microsoft was based on a PURCHASED intellectual property from another company. Bill Gates did not invent DOS, he bought it.
The United States is in a HUGE DEBT HOLE. The hole is probably deeper than most oil wells.
We don't have to sell ALL of Alaska, just the part where NO ONE lives, the Arctic Wildlife Refuge.
For thirty years people have been debating the issue. People were saying in 1996 that any drilling in the ANWR (Alaska National Wildlife Preserve) area would be pointless because it would take 10 years before we would have any additional domestic oil production. Well it is now 14 years later and we are in a worse position due to increased demand and reduced supply.
It's time to disband the Department of Energy (DOE). It was formed in 1977 under President Carter as a response to the OPEC oil prices. The DOW budget in 2009 was $36 Billion. Gas is over $3 a gallon in most places. The DOE was supposed to find alternative fuel sources. How is that going?
How about we disband the DOE and save $30+ Billion? This deficit reduction isn't so hard when you use COMMON SENSE.
Next. What is the annual budget for the NEA?
posted by J. Jay @ 7:54 PM
1 comments
1 Comments:
A thoughtful blog. 3 things to consider:
1. There isn't that much oil in ANWR. The US consumes 20 million barrels of oil a day. The 11 billion barrels in ANWR would supply US needs for 1 1/2 years. The bigger problem is that the US needs to consume less oil, which can be accomplished by reducing energy connsumption and developing alternative energy sources. Disbanding the DOE won't help achieve this goal. However, the DOE needs to do a better job.
2. Even if we don't drill ANWR now, the oil isn't going anywhere. We have been debating this issue for 30 years, and the oil is still there. It will get drilled someday, regardless of what legislation is passed now.
3. Selling ANWR wouldn't have much impact on the US national debt. Oil is currently worth about $90 barrel, meaning that all the oil in ANWR is worth just under $1 trillion, and that doesn't factor in significant extraction costs. Even if the US sold ANWR for $1 trillion, it would only reduce the national debt by 7%. A year later, we'd have erased that gain with our usual deficit spending, and we would no long own the land or oil. We'd probably have to buy back the oil at a mark up. The primary problem is that the US government is spending too much money, not that it is selling too few of its assets.
Post a Comment
<< Home