ANWR Drilling Would Provide Quick Relief

With record oil prices, many on the Right (as defined with today's labels) have understandably called for the federal government to remove its restrictions on oil exploration and drilling in ANWR (located in Alaska) as well as other federal lands and offshore water areas.[1] They point out that these federal restrictions, in conjunction with local environmental activism, have resulted in the absurd situation where 94 percent of federal land, and 97 percent of federal offshore waters, are not being leased by energy companies. The US government itself estimates that its own prohibitions currently render 18 billion barrels in the outer continental shelf (OCS) and 19 billion barrels located under federal lands off limits. Note that these are very conservative estimates, because nobody has gone out and extensively explored the areas where it is illegal to extract oil!

I'm scratching my head and trying to understand why the Democrats are so adamantly opposed to drilling in ANWR and elsewhere when we are sending billions to other countries in exchange for oil. I consider the ravings of Ms. Pelosi: "I'm trying to save the planet!" and Mr. Reid: "Oil is making us sick!" and I wonder if they're serious. Well, I know they're seriously nuts. Until we can develop economically feasible technologies to incorporate nuclear, solar and wind power in our homes and cars, we are going to require coal and oil. We might as well use what we have instead of paying the Saudis and others for theirs.