Alaskan Oil Drilling

Alaskan Oil drilling: To drill or not to drill?

For a drug addict to quit a drug, the best solutions for the addict would be to slowly wean them self off the drug periodically. America can be viewed in a parallel way on its dependency for oil. America needs another source of oil to slowly lessen its overwhelming dependency on foreign oil and to help the process of finding another mass energy source. The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge better known as the ANWR is a rich treasure of oil and gas that can help lessen Americas need for foreign resources. Drilling on the ANWR will not only help the American economy, but will also help aid America in the future.

Many ask "why do we need this oil in Alaska? Is it to make America a more dominant world power? Is it to increase pollution by getting more oil?" The answer is, no. America's stance is conservation and alternative sources of energy, however, the US cannot switch to another energy resource over night. America needs another reserve to tap into to be removed from Middle Eastern dependency. The US needs something so that its foreign policy is not seized captive by its need for oil. As the US tries to develop new sources of energy the ANWR is a reserve that should be tapped into to help free up the oil dependency.

Drilling on the ANWR would significantly help the American economy as a whole. Opening up the ANWR would help diminish our binds to the Middle East and help our own economy by creating massive amounts of American jobs; figures from TIME magazine project that between 250,000 and 735,000 jobs will open up in the US as a result of ANWR drilling. In Virginia alone about 28,000 jobs will be created such as engineers and oil supply developers. The drilling will affect each state in some way weather it be transportation, stocking, manufacturing or a vast number of jobs. What better way to help American citizens than making national jobs instead of creating foreign jobs.

Most individuals may think that drilling and transporting oil on the ANWR will put many animals in danger, when in all reality the animals and their environment will be subjected to little or no danger. There are many reasons for this. Firstly, a great deal of oil drilling experience has already been learned in the Arctic area because of previous drilling done at Prudhoe Bay, which has taught oil companies extensive safety precautions in the drilling and transporting of oil. Prudhoe Bay which is only couple miles from the ANWR and currently Americas largest source of oil is said to rival the amount of oil on the ANWR. Moreover, the ANWR stretches a vast 19 million acres and the only land that is going to be affected by the drilling is a mere 1.9 million acres, called the 1002 area. That is only 2% of the ANWR region. Of the 1.9 million acres only 2000 of those acres will