Submitted by: Submitted by lmsk
Views: 292
Words: 1874
Pages: 8
Category: Societal Issues
Date Submitted: 02/17/2011 08:22 AM
IT’S BIGGER THAN ANWR
The controversy over oil extraction in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) is a heated one with both proponents and opponents offering data and passionate claims on whether drilling should or should not commence. On one hand, supporters of drilling in ANWR argue that using this resource would decrease the cost of oil and would be a catalyst for an economic boom. To calm fears regarding national security and financial instability, proponents of the drilling project say that the U.S. would have less dependency on foreign oil, thousands of jobs would be created, and there would be little to no harm to the environment. On the other hand, opponents to drilling claim that the amount of recoverable oil in ANWR would only be the equivalent of what is normally consumed in the U.S. over the span of a year and that it could take years or decades before any helpful amounts of oil are ready for use. As an alternative to harvesting the oil, environmentalists are educating the American people on ways to reduce their consumption of fuel products; scientists are researching and testing alternative sustainable fuel sources; and, business professionals, like Boone Pickens, are starting alternative energy companies which then create new jobs. Mr. Pickens believes that by using alternatives such as solar, wind, or tidal energy, the U.S. dependency on foreign oil would be greatly reduced; and, unlike the jobs that would be created by drilling in the Refuge, the jobs created for alternative energy sources could be set up and maintained not only in Alaska but throughout the U.S. Furthermore, the use of cleaner burning fuels would reduce our carbon footprint thus lessening the overall harm to the world’s environment. Because recovering the ANWR oil would take years, the amount of oil that is available limited in supply, and the risk to the environment significant, the better plan would be to use that time to build a diversified fleet of energy...