Oil drill plan?

Question

is the oil drill plan going to bring down the price of gas?

Answer 1

Not for the immediate future, it will take 5 to 7 years to get into full  production.    Had we started wells 12-13 years ago in ANWR there would additional domestic production available today and prices might not have gone as high as they have in the past two years if at all.

This is the argument for drilling now, it takes time to get the benefit of drilling on line.  So drilling today is for providing availability for the not to distant future.   If you do not drill you can guarantee that prices will go up if our consumption isn't reduced.  If additional production is able to be brought on line  in 5 years it may help prevent price hikes that would otherwise happen.

Consider that had we started drilling in ANWR 12 years ago that additional domestic production would have helped keep oil from reaching as high a price today.  

Today's high prices are a wake up call that we need to get off of our oil addiction.    Boosting production to lower cost has economic benefits but we will soon forget all of these  lessons once oil becomes cheap again.  If we can increase domestic production through drilling or otherwise with the goal of stabilizing prices from rapid increases vs the  goal of cost reduction, the economic incentives to conserve and transistion to alternatives would  remain in place.    If oil prices become cheap again people will fall back into their old habits and our oil addiction will continue.

Answer 2

Only in the long term.  There is the need to find the oil, determine which company gets to drill where, build the rigs, drill for the oil, pump it, refine it and then sell it to the local stations, all of which can take years bfore the process even starts.

I would guess the economizing by consumers (less trips buying better cars) will make more impact than drilling in the short run.