Despoiling refuge for oil is futile

Doug Nusbaum, Henderson

Thursday, May 15, 2008 | 2:02 a.m.

With respect to people who state that if liberals, Democrats, etc., would have allowed drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, we would have much cheaper petroleum:

In all of ANWR, there is an optimistic estimate of 11 billion barrels. We consume 20 million barrels a day. So ANWR would give us two years of oil consumption.

If it could supply 10 percent of our oil, then it could help for 20 years. But if by chance we increased our mileage by 10 percent, from today’s 25 miles per gallon to 28 mpg, that would achieve the same goal for, well, forever — not for 20 years.

But no, keep driving your 3-ton runamuckas with their 15 mpg consumption to the store for groceries — then complain that we are not turning wilderness areas into sewers like Louisiana in the quest for limited resources. Or that we are not using the laws of mineral rights to put productive ranchers out of business, bankrupt them and ruin the land with no consequences.

Oh, and also ignore that oil would be a lot less expensive ($70 a barrel) if President Bush had not trashed the dollar by trashing the economy with this bottomless pit of a war. It might be less expensive still if we had not taken so much of Iraq’s oil off the table with this war, and made access to other oil riskier.