Everyone I know over 40 believes we should be tapping oil resources in ANWR so this post is directed at the genx, millennials and third graders who stumble onto this blog.
Where is Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR)?
Barrow Alaska (image ANWR.org)
The people in Barrow and the rest of Alaska support drilling in ANWR 3 to 1 according to the pro-drilling site ANWR.org. Lots of good reading there and much more here.
I paid $4.25 a gallon to fill my car last week. I drove for take out yesterday and chose the closest option rather than the restaurant I preferred a few miles down the road as a protest.
The food at the restaurant is more expensive today than it was last month. It costs more for beef, rice and the noodles to be delivered to the restaurant so the restaurateur has to pass it on. Eventually her business will be affected as her customers stay home instead of burning gas to pay for her high priced food.
She will have to lay off staff, busboys first, then wait staff. Her rent won't go down because the strip mall owner faces the prospect of losing all his tenants, he's holding on too.
Where is your psychological breaking point on a gallon of gas? $5.00, $6.00, have you thought about it? At what price do you begin reallocating discretionary household funds. You Genx and Millennial folks generally don't cook so at what price do you begin rethinking your Starbucks and Burger King budget?
Empty strip malls.
So what you may say but the strip mall is the heart and soul of small retail business in America. These are the small businesses Walmart could not kill, restaurants, laundry, specialty gift, flower shops etc.
They are the canary in the coal mine. As they go, so go we.
What does this have to do with ANWR?
Once we decide to drill a positive chain of events will unfold almost immediately.
Oil futures will fall as traders bail, reversing long positions in favor of a hedge. OPEC, who are not the enemy by the way, will convene and plot a new course. With the prospect of being reduced to selling oil to China, India and a miserly Europe. India and China subsidize their growing oil demand. The Saudi's and the OPEC nations worst nightmare is to be stuck selling their oil to countries that bargain.
Watch how fast oil drops below $90. per barrel once the intentions to drill in ANWR is announced.
ANWR's oil as I see it is a gigantic bargaining chip. It's also a bridge that will deliver us to the next energy source. I suggest that that the 30 year supply in ANWR will never be exhausted. Within that 30 years we will be driving battery or hydrogen powered vehicles.
In the meantime we can't allow ourselves to be beaten down by foreign suppliers. I mentioned above that they are not our enemies. They are businessmen. They have the goods and we buy their goods. If we are too stupid to get in the business ourselves then we can't blame them for enriching them beyond even their own wildest dreams.
Let's not forget what they will never forget. Before oil reserves were discovered in the Arabian Gulf region the world treated Gulf residents as ugly stepchildren. The tables turned, call it Karma if you wish but they hold the goods and could care less whether you or I cancel our summer trip to Lake Tahoe or Mt. Rushmore.
We need to grow up about Alaska oil. The caribou will be just fine. Those that shed a tear for caribou and the other critters of the tundra should know hunting is allowed on the refuge. What? Bet the armchair environmentalists didn't realize that. The horror!
Let's start the drilling and wake up to the fact our economy, lifestyle and national security are impacted by not doing so.
.
Hey Google, a little love for the guys and gals that served and died in defense of our freedoms.
