WASHINGTON -- Americans claim to be upset about high energy prices, but you wouldn't know after watching Congress vote to ban drilling off the Gulf of Mexico and in the Great Lakes. Legislators seem equally opposed to oil exploration in the Alaska Natural Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), even though environmental groups permit energy production on their own lands.
The U.S. Geological Survey estimates that ANWR likely holds about 20.7 billion and conceivably as much as 31.5 billion barrels of oil, as well as four trillion cubic feet of natural gas. Production would help substitute for the diminishing flow from Alaska's Prudhoe Bay, now half its peak in 1982.
Cam Toohey, former executive Director of Arctic Power, figures that opening up ANWR would generate between 250,000 and 735,000 jobs. The estimated economic benefits run up to $100 billion, comparable to the economic activity resulting from the Prudhoe Bay oil field and Trans-Alaska pipeline.