What are the pros and cons of oil drilling in the national forests and parks?

Question

What are the pros and cons of oil drilling in the national forests and parks?

Answer 1

The pro's is money.   The con's are most of the money will not be going to the owners of the land- us.   Why should we allow a canadian or european country to drill on our national lands, pay a pittance in royalties then leave a mess for taxpayers to clean up?   Since oil is an international commodity it won't lower prices of fuel in the US.

Answer 2

Oil drilling creates Traffic destroying the Area.

It should not be done.

Answer 3

in the past oil companies were very careless in their efforts to extract energy from the land, however thanks to our environmental concerns they must now adhere to strict guidelines for removing oil and gas from the American landscape, unfortunately the rest of the oil producing world is not at all concerned about our air and water and they pollute the environment far worse than any American company ever did, and by the way the air and water they pollute works it's way to us eventually, we must also consider the fact that resources produced overseas must be transported to us by way of ships, most registered overseas and don't adhere to the same stringent standard that American ships do, not to mention the cost of shipping, in today's drilling technologies we leave a very small footprint on the land and return the land to a condition as close to what it was as possible, so i fail to see the cons, granted oil consumption leads to pollution and the best way to stop that is to raise the price of gas, the higher the price gets, the more efficient the consumer becomes and the harder the car companies have to try to make cars we can afford to buy, so the American businesses will solve the problem that whiny little liberals have been wringing their hand about for years so put lets put algore in his Yugo and send him to Saudi Arabia and let him fix some real problems, we can fix our own

Answer 4

The obvious pro of drilling for oil in a national park is the money. Where there is oil, there is money. Simple as that. That is really the only pro in that and almost any scenario.

The cons are as follows:

Oil is used to make gasoline, which when burned adds to the greenhouse gases.

When oil burns, it adds to the green house gases.

Drilling uses heavy duty machinery, which adds to the greenhouse gases.

You will need to take down some trees to get to the oil. Two problems with this. One, the machinery adds to the greenhouse gases and two, the trees are no longer able to make oxygen after their death.

National forests and parks are protected by law from drilling, so it is illegal.

In conclusion, I say no to drilling for oil and suggest other means of getting energy.

Answer 5

The first two answers here reveal a complete lack of knowledge concerning history, economics and science; as well as a complete lack of compassion.  

MONEY?  That's the "pro"?  That's it?  How did you miss the fact that for the next thirty years, minimum, we have to have fossil fuels in increasing amounts in order for you, yes you, to maintain the easy life to which you have become accustom.   Did you think about millions of people around the world who's lifestyle will suffer dramatically because environmentalists have artificially made energy scarce and expensive?  When I say "suffer", I don't mean that they'll be taking a bus to the Mall instead of their Porsche.  I'm referring to people who's bellies will ache with the pain of emptiness when there is no food.  Elitists from the Left will have made food scarce, expensive, and delivery costs prohibitive.  A similar thing happened when a Leftist environmentalist, Rachel Carson, wrote a book, Silent Spring, in 1962, where she "exposed" the supposed negative impact of DDT on the environment.  As many as 20 million children died from Malaria as a result of the subsequent banning of this effective, and nearly harmless, pesticide.  Decades later, the error of her research was exposed and DDT is being used again in some third world countries, to save lives.

Here's another tidbit for you:  There are now more trees in American than in the history of our nation.  Why?  Because we replant cut timber and modern fire fighting methods save millions of acres that in the past would have been lost from fires ignited by lightning strikes.

Here's a quote from a fairly famous meteorologist, who knows what he's talking about:  

"You may want to give credit where credit is due to Al Gore and his global warming campaign the next time you fill your car with gasoline, because there is a direct connection between Global Warming and four dollar a gallon gas.

It is shocking, but true, to learn that the entire Global Warming frenzy is based on the environmentalist’s attack on fossil fuels, particularly gasoline.

All this big time science, international meetings, thick research papers, dire threats for the future; all of it, comes down to their claim that the carbon dioxide in the exhaust from your car and in the smoke stacks from our power plants is destroying the climate of planet Earth.

What an amazing fraud; what a scam."

"...The battle against fossil fuels has controlled policy in this country for decades.

It was the environmentalist’s prime force in blocking any drilling for oil in this country and the blocking the building of any new refineries, as well. So now the shortage they created has sent gasoline prices soaring. And, it has lead to the folly of ethanol, which is also partly behind the fuel price increases; that and our restricted oil policy.

The ethanol folly is also creating a food crisis throughout the world – it is behind the food price rises for all the grains, for cereals, bread, everything that relies on corn or soy or wheat, including animals that are fed corn, most processed foods that use corn oil or soybean oil or corn syrup.

Food shortages or high costs have led to food riots in some third world countries and made the cost of eating out or at home budget busting for many."

John Coleman

Weather Channel Founder

Global warming is a complete lie, promoted by the most hypocritical politician on the planet.  You will someday weep that you, or anyone, ever listened to him.

Answer 6

We will always have a need for oil in our lifetimes!  Nothing will completely replace a need for oil!  Wind Power sounds nice, except it will need some sort of fuel to back it up - the wind does not always blow!  There are no batteries large enough to store energy to support a city!  

Getting oil from ANWR in Alaska will make the price of your gasoline, home heating oil, food transportation costs, etc. much lower!    Don't believe anyone in  Washington who says it will take 10 years to get any oil!  Oil can flow much sooner than that!  Inaction by our government to approve oil    drilling only delays what we will eventually have to do anyway!  

I am old enough to remember when politicians in Washington fought tooth and nail against oil drilling, they said that oil from the Prudhoe Bay would only last 6 months - well it has been around 30 years now and it's still flowing!   Without that Prudhoe Bay oil Americans would be paying double for their gas!  Similar "small minded politicians" are again preventing oil drilling in ANWR, preventing the construction of refineries, preventing new nuclear power plants and preventing drilling off our coasts!  These politicians prefer to see us broke and penniless than go against their environmental supporters!

Prudhoe Bay oil flows in lines that go through forests and fields and the animals have not been affected.! As a matter of fact, the animals close to the oil lines seem to procreate quite well!  There are roads so the oil lines can be serviced, these roads are used by the fire departments to put out forest fires; without those roads millions of animals would perish in forest fires, along with the trees!

There is the occasional oil leak, sometimes hunters shoot the pipes too - but the greatest damage has been done by sabotage from environmental groups who want to show the world "damage from mean, nasty, greedy oil companies!"  Damage they cause has also been quickly repaired!

Prudhoe Bay is based on technology that is 40 years old.  Now we can drill oil with less damage to any environment and with a smaller footprint!   ANWR is in an area in the middle of nowhere!  

Any oil sites in national forests would have to have round the clock protection to prevent sabotage from environmental groups who want to (again) show the world how bad oil companies are - even when they cause the damage!  

There is no real downside!   People will be employed, technology will be created and improved, gas will be cheaper and poor people will be able to heat their homes during winter without choosing between eating or freezing!

Hmmm