If there is so much unused oil in Alaska?

Question

It seems the reason Bush said we weren't going to mess with the oil in Alaska was to save it for future generations... Yet we are researching new means of energy (solar, hydrogen, etc.) Since it is clear that we will likely be driving hydrogen or electric powered cars in the future, why not harvest the oil in Alaska?

Answer 1

The Democrats will not let Bush drill in Alaska. They are trying to starve this country. There is China drilling between Florida and Cuba but we can not drill.

Answer 2

Maybe the Idea is to buy Oil from around the world now when its reasonably affordable and to keep what you the Oil already own for the Day when its so Rare and expensive....that way you will be back as Kings of The Castle and the poor little Sheik yer money will be down to his last Trillion Dollars with no more oil to sell....Pity we in Scotland didn't think like that and save what little we have for the Day when we really need it....but, oh no...sell the family silver is the way the Government here see it...

Answer 3

1)  We don't have a viable energy replacement source yet, and no timeline as to when that will exactly come about.

2)  The Alaska oil reserves are largely in the environmentally protected tundra regions of the state.

Answer 4

Two reasons.

1) There isn't much oil in Alaska.  Based on the current rate of oil consumption in the US and the estimates for how much oil is under the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, it's one year's worth of oil.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arctic_Refu...

2) It's a wildlife refuge.  Why would we want to destroy a wildlife refuge just to get 1 year's worth of oil?

Answer 5

The point is to stop adding more c**p to our atmosphere and to leave the Alaskan wilderness alone.  Besides, best guesses as to how much is there say it wouldn't amount to much more than a drop in the bucket of our consumption requirements.

Answer 6

Actually, Bush and his cronies did everything they could to get into alaska and ANWR, even subvert the law to some extent.

They failed though due to extreme pressure from environmental groups and the public.

The whole idea was to stop using so much oil and spare some of these wildlands from industrialization and destruction and move onto cleaner more efficient technologies. It appears to be beginning now, and if trends continue, there will be huge reserves of oil which will never had to have even been touched

Answer 7

The government is being forced to use alternative resources for power. This means finding away to get rid of our fossil fuels and find a renewable source such as solar power.The effects that some scientist say the fossil fuels have on the atmosphere are very harming. As we move into the GREEN effect of the future, theses renewable sources will be more common and eventually will be reasonably price for purchase.

Answer 8

they dont want to mess up the wildlife or ecosystem but since theyve effed up the rest of the united states might as well do it to alaska. whos more important us or animals and trees

Answer 9

ALASKA! there is more oil and pet fuels in your backyard. watch the Science Channel and you'll get your answer.

Answer 10

The oil in Anwar would  help but only a little.  Keep peeling the layers back and you will keep seeing more and more of the problem.  To much consolidation of the oil industries have made a sudo monopoly.  These jerks are now saying the price of oil is going up because the value of the dollar is going down.  They caused the value of dollar to go down when they jacked the price of oil up from $45.00 a barrel to $105.00.  These guys have a unbelievable amount of nerve.

If we don't break there monopoly we're all going down.  Just think about how much power these guys have and how much money they are bringing in vs any other industry in the history of the planet.

Answer 11

The main use of the oil (and other fossil fuel) reserves is to lock up the excess carbon from the early atmosphere. It will be cheaper to pay to leave the fossil fuels in the ground & not deforest the planet than to pay the cost of adapting to run-away climate change. see UK government Stern report http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/independen...

wasting oil just to drive around, when there are much more suitable & more pleasent & cheaper technologies available makes no sense. electric cars will meet our personal transport needs now, not somewhen in the future

Answer 12

Some people see all energy options in some kind of good-versus-evil opera, and to them, oil energy is Evil.  That's all.  From any reasonable perspective, we should use it.  What we're doing to the environment by NOT using it is having other countries drill the wells and pump the oil, those being countries that would gladly pave a rainforest without remorse if they thought it would save them a buck just today, i.e. countries that will make quite a sloppy mess getting the oil from the ground to us.  Not to mention that these are mostly countries (e.g. Saudi Arabia) that we don't really need to be funding.