This is topic Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in forum General Discussion at Noncompliance.


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Posted by Jomamason (Member # 14) on :
 
I dont normally do these types of things an I tend not to agree with agenda based groups because they will push their agendas DESPITE the facts but I feel this issue is very important. The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) is a mear 5% of arctic tundra not available to drilling. In this 5% you have the summer breeding grounds for the largest remaining carabou heard on US soil, Polar bear breading grounds, breeding grounds for huge #'s of migratory waterfoul, not to mention the wolves, grizzelies, utilizing the area directly and indirectly. It is by far one of the most unique ecosystems on the planet. The oil extracted from this land will not be utilized for at least a decade and the amount it will produce is debatable an will not necessarily fill the need of the increasing demand of the US. We already pay less than most countries for fuel, an there are other options that can be explored. What is not debatable is this. THIS SYSTEM WILL NOT RECOVER FROM OIL DRILLING & THE DIFFERENT ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS ASSOCIATED WITH IT, thats a fact. The climate, and location are factors which create a ecosystem that does not have a resiliant nature, decomposition takes centuries, and when environments such as this are disturbed it could take more than centuries for succesion to take its course to reclaim the land, Im talking a hundred years or more just for simple grasses to take hold of barren ground. ONE OIL SPILL in this area would virtually guarantee the loss of irriplacable habitat for these other species, an its almost a given that there will be more than one spill.
I realize that this is not a popular subject among many who visit this site. But as a species and a Nation we have the capability to coexists as part of our environment without impacting it in detrimental and irreversible ways, it just takes more effort. An please, please dont take what the media or the politicians or the agenda groups say about environmental issues as any form of the truth. They only present the polarity of the situation, when in actuallity the issues are far more complex than is ever presented to the general public. Seek your own info, search out an ask the people who actually study the ecology of our planet an Im sure you'll find a much different story. Those who spend their lives researching the environmental interactions that drive this planet (me included) are not all gloom an doom. What we desire is an end to the short sightedness of our actions when we choose to alter the environment, when we dont even truely understand how all the pieces go together an interact an on how many levels (which is likely very vast). You wouldnt have someone who new nothing about engines, take one apart and expect to them to be able to put it back together if they didnt know how it operated in the first place, you'd waste a perfectly good engine. The ecosystem of this planet is much the same way, HOWEVER we've already chucked a bunch of pieces, an we're still not that sure of how it all goes together and operates. I know some of you may attack me as a bunny hugger or a leftest but that just isnt so. I tend to agree with the conservative's on most issues other than the environment. And given that the pronoun of CONSERVative is shared with CONSERVATION of our natural resources, I feel that the conservatives in politics dont live up to their namesake, they dont deal with environmental issues even mildly conservatively, an are won over by the factions who only wish to exploit our natural resources for personal an finacial gain. So I ask that you take a moment to sign this petition, its very quick an easy and you dont have to wade through any crap to do it. But really, really think about what is important in this world and what type of world we want left for future generations.The petition is at the following site an will be sent to the Pres an Congress.
www.savearcticrefug.org
Thanks
Jomama

PS - I do so look forward to the discussion I hope this generates.
 


Posted by Jomamason (Member # 14) on :
 
Even though I question how many of this sites visitors will sign this petition, I left out a letter for the link if your willing.
www.savearcticrefuge.org
 
Posted by Cremator (Member # 8) on :
 
I have absolutely no problem with protecting special areas such as this. I do have a problem, as you stated, with the groups that generally start/fund these types of things, becuase many of them have multiple, unrelated agendas, such as "Save the whales and ban ALL guns". I don't have an issue with attaching my name to a useful petition, as long as the same signature is not used as an endorsement for the group and subsequently used for some other proposal...


Cremator
 


Posted by Jomamason (Member # 14) on :
 
Well put an well said, I totally agree. From what I saw of the site with the petition this is for this issue only.
Defenders of Wildlife is sponsoring this petition an they're pretty reputable an seem to attempt to use science to back they're cause (unlike, PETA, Sierra Club) You can check a box if you want more of their info, an they even re-email you to make sure someone else is not using your name. An then I did recieve a response email from the Whitehouse saying it was delivered.
 
Posted by Cremator (Member # 8) on :
 
Well, I dug through their site extensively and found nothing objectionable. If anyone was teetering on the fence unsure of putting their name on the petition, you can accept my approval as well-researched (I read every piece available in the About Us on their website); there was no anti-gun items and the only anti-hunting pertained to farmers and shooting from airplanes (you gotta suck if that's the only way you can kill a wolf).
 
Posted by Mikey (Member # 42) on :
 
I signed it. The way I see it is that there just has to be some parts of the land that we just don't mess with. I don't like paying 1.65 for a gallon of gas any more than the next guy but I think that moving into untouched wilderness isn't always the answer. In a way it is kind of accruate to akin this to drilling at old faithful. The only reason this would even be considered is that it's so far away from the mainland population. There have to be other solutions other than going into these areas. Kind of like the old growth forests in Oregon. There are lots of other sources of wood other than a relative few acres of old growth trees.

MORE NUKE POWER!!!!
 


Posted by bich (Member # 35) on :
 
Fuck the tree huggin' hippies!!!!!! We need oil for our society to survive. And if it means that a bunch of animals have to go away so we don't have to buy as much oil from those fucking towel head camel jockeys, so be it. Survival of the fittest. If the animals cant adapt to drilling rigs then fuck em. If oil spills the critters should have instinct to get the fuck out of there, and if they don't, fuck em. I do agree that there should be more nuclear power. But the same thing is going to happen. Some fucking tree hugging hippy fuck is going to whine and cry that it's going to make two headed squirrels or four assed monkeys. It doesn't matter what way we try to get power, some unshaven man hating bull dyke is going to protest until the entire world is living back in the dark ages with no power.
 
Posted by Cremator (Member # 8) on :
 
That's the beauty of it, bich. This is where guns come into play: Enter the Dark Ages, those who have the guns ahve the power.
Here it is as a math equation:

DarkAges+Guns=Cremator=God
 


Posted by . (Member # 20) on :
 
"Mom please flush it all away."

 
Posted by Mikey (Member # 42) on :
 
As always Troy, we all appreciate your insightful, intelligent, organized response. I wish more judges and politicians had your uncanny wit and argument logic.

I especially like your bit on adaptation. I'm sure that the, "FUCK THEM" quote came with much thought and research. Perhaps you could share with us, in depth, your knowledge of adaptation and evolution. I'm sure that you could give everyone here quite an education on the subject.

I also like your quote for citizens who care about legitimate concerns over the environment in the use of "tree huggers." This is also very insightful due to the abundance of trees on The Artic.

The careful use of the "slippery slope" argument was also well placed and gracefully used, as I'm sure that most who do care for the environment also wish to take us back to the time before the wheel.

Please, please visit this forum more often to share your thoughts and expressions with us. Without your insight and intelligent arguments, the rest of us would all be far more stupider.

 


Posted by Klaus (Member # 66) on :
 
Larson will eat dirt....

If you make him.
 


Posted by Cremator (Member # 8) on :
 
I've seen him eat flies.
Twice.
 
Posted by hand job on :
 
Does this stuff really matter anyhow? Its only a matter of time before the next
" Global Impact Event " ... so why is everyone so wound up over this area of the
World? I mean, isnt Ebola, and starvation
of people in underdeveloped countries a
larger issue, say compared to Bichs lack of
intellegince?
 
Posted by SKUZZY on :
 
Thanks for getting this to board Jomamason,
its great to see that others out there are concerned about things in the world.
Who is this hand job guy, what planet is he from? The govenment would never allow an
asteroid to slam into Earth, just think of the damage that would cause and all the people that would be injured, or worse, killed, they would never allow it to happen.
 
Posted by RockLobster (Member # 45) on :
 
And just how do you propose to stop an asteroid that is traveling at speeds which we cant even reach yet and also weights more than austalia. WAKE UP! We are not invinsible. Rather we are extremely fragile when it comes to grand scheme of things. This planet has been reset more than once by an event like this. IT WILL HAPPEN AGAIN! I'm not a teller of doom and gloom but the simple fact of it is that mathmatics and science proves that the human race will not be around forever. YOU WATCH TOO MANY MOVIES. Blowing an asteroid in half is not going to stop it from slaming into the earth. Sorry, better sell you stock now.
 
Posted by Mikey (Member # 42) on :
 
No, nothing matters. Thank you for pointing that our hand job. After being enlightned by your knowledge that some day we will all be dead becaused of a rouge asteroid, I now plan on launching myself from a freeway bridge into rush hour traffic. Because, after all, nothing matters.
 
Posted by Jomamason (Member # 14) on :
 
Skuzzy, please stay off my side, as my inital statement said, I despise agenda groups and thats the type of info you'll predominatly get off the net, plus you sound like you may have a learning disablity and live in a cave. The goverment would not allow a asteroid to hit earth?????? First off, what could they possibly do, check your physics bud. The government is a cluster-fuck, I should know I've worked for them. The dust would have settled from an impact before they'ed even waded through the paperwork or gotten the "anti-asteroid bill" out of commitee.
I dont believe we need to "save the earth", no matter what we do with it, it will be here long after we're gone. I'm just a proponent of sound informed management of our natural resources in order to maintain human needs an maintain a healthy environment, utilizing good science an LONG-term planning, something most agenda groups have nothing to do with. Humans are part of the system, like it or not. Secondly, not hitting your dog, so you think you can somehow rationalize with the pooch. How can you teach it consequence with out negative reinforcment. Its behaviorally impossible!!! You cant teach a dog the understanding of the word NO with only praise, it just won't work.

Bich - Survival of the fittest???? Please, that has absolutely nothing to do with evolution, natural selection, or Darwin. He never said that, check your history. That bastardization of Darwins theory was a statement made by a group know as Social Darwinist. Who in turn evolved (no pun) into a little known group called THE NAZI PARTY. Which doesnt necessarily suprise me given the ignorant tripe you rant about through your little diatribe.
An you think several more years of oil will somehow solve our problems, its a NON-RENUABLE resource, look it up.
You know what happens to other species who overutilize their resources, overpopulate, and crowd themselves in there own habitat??? They go nuts, kill each other and themselves an go into a mass die-off. Like I said before we're just as much a part of the system as any other species and we will be drastically affected by an event known as Faunal Collapse if it happens on a world wide scale (which it just may be).
Debate is fine, just be informed with what you bring to the table. You bitch about tree huggers, they're agenda based and the
ANWR petition has nothing to do with them. An although your at the other end of the spectrum, your knee-jerk responses are just as agendize and uniformed as the tree huggers, your both the problem and you have no solutions.
N

 


Posted by MILLER (Member # 16) on :
 
fauna collapse? whatever, drill for fucking oil everywhere. anamils can learn to adapt, they have for years, there is a big oil pipe going thru there homes now, so what the fuck,
drill for more oil, we need more oil!
jomamason and skuzzy, you guys dont have a clue about reality.
 
Posted by . (Member # 20) on :
 
Here are a couple of links to angering articles describing some of the tactics of the eco-freaks to keep people out of "wilderness" areas:
http://www.sightings.com/general9/eco1.htm
http://www.sightings.com/general9/eco2.htm


 


Posted by Jomamason (Member # 14) on :
 
Miller, thats about the most simplistic explanation I've ever heard. Animals Adapt, to what? Anything and everything that we do to their environment affects them. And yes they have a RANGE of adaptability, but when crucial habitat is gone (see: FOOD, or the like) they don't just say, Oh I guess I can eat or live here instead. Please explain to me in your ultimate wisdom why then there is an unprecidented rate of extictions going on in the animal kingdom today (10x the rate that killed the dinosaurs, that took millions of years). Another thing for you to ponder, Mutation (hence the ability to adapt) is Pre-adaptive. Animals can't will themselves to adapt if it beyond the limits of their genetic code. I know I know what I'm talking about, an I just have to laugh at the simpiltons out there who view the world such as yourself.
 
Posted by Cramer (Member # 5) on :
 
so,


joe, how about an " update " on this topic.
you should have even more insite, now that your living there???

by the way, how big is that yearly oil check
you get??
 


Posted by Cramer (Member # 5) on :
 
dont be too pissed. the oil company money
will spend the same as the stuff you get from
the govt.!!!
 
Posted by Cramer (Member # 5) on :
 
hey!!!!!

why not get a HANDGUN with that oil money!!!
 


Posted by Jomamason (Member # 14) on :
 
I wont get a check till october of 2003. I have to be here January to January next year. The check is dependent on the stock market. It wasn't all that big thru the 80's (although who can complain at all about a Negative State income tax). Last year was the biggest check yet, somewhere around $1950, they just publised the PFD amount about a week ago here for the year, it took a bit of a dive this year, I think its at $1810.


On another note. The prob that I have with the whole ANWR thing is that those who are pro-drilling disseminate info that would suggest that this is the only place left to drill up here. Since I've been up here they've found two other caches of oil (not in ANWR) that are at least 1/10th the size of the current drilling area. On top of that there is the whole of the National Petrolium Reserve in Alaska which is at least 3x the size of ANWR and hasn't even been thoroughly surveyed yet (the stuff I tried to point out to you on the map steve). Hows that for disinformation???????
 


Posted by Jomamason (Member # 14) on :
 
On top of that!!!! You know what the by-product of drilling Oil is??????? Natural Gas.... They burn-off enough natural gas up here in in a month to heat our entire country for a year. And the oil companies have just come out with a statement this week stating that its not economically feasible for them to create a Natural gas pipeline either down to Valdez AK where it could be shipped elsewhere or down thru Canada to give the US a direct supply to a resource that would easily last us at least the next 150-200 years......
 
Posted by . (Member # 20) on :
 
Well, if they did that they couldn't start a "shortage panic" every fall and winter and jack the price up. It's not like it's a surprise that the demand for heating oil and natural gas goes up when it's colder!! The season comes nearly the same time every year, for fucksakes!! Other companies are able to look at past trends and forecast what supply is going to be needed. Maybe they just burn off the surplus so that they can keep the price in a profitable area. "Oh, but we've had a spree of milder winters where the demand wasn't as high, whimper, whimper. Meow, meow." Jesus-tap-dancing-fucking-Christ!! Why are you so easily caught by surprise!! I bet they never saw a supposed "power shortage" coming on the left coast, either. With such fucking disastrous shortsightedness it’s amazing that this country has been here for 225 years!! Well, maybe not. Maybe this shortsightedness is just a recent disease.
 
Posted by ProfBooty (Member # 21) on :
 
I wonder if I was to discharge a 50 cal Desert Eagle into someone's head at short range if they'd be able to "adapt" to that. What about if I doused them with kerosene and then set them on fire? Why the hell do people die when that happens? Can't they "adapt" for fuck sake? What's wrong with our species, Jesus Christ! Nice theory Larson, I'm sorry I missed this thread back in Feb., how enlightening some of our members are.

BTW, on the oil thing, I recall reading about an oil field in northern Alberta called the Athabaska Deposit. It's estimated just from the little bit that's been probed so far that it has more oil than all of Saudi Arabia and we already have US pipeline infrastructure to that area. And that's just one of Alberta's oil fields, there's so much oil in that part of Canada that they've got what are called "Bituminous Sands", surface sand soaked with oil, it's practially a nuisance there's so much of it. But never mind all that, the Alaskan arctic is our LAST option!
 


Posted by Mikey (Member # 42) on :
 
Steve D. Ill vouch for what you said about alberta. I was just there hunting for a week and there is oil and nat gas everywhere! and I mean everywhere!
 
Posted by Cremator (Member # 8) on :
 
Steve, to save on typing, the guys I work and shoot with here affectionately refer to the .50 caliber Desert Eagle as the "Man Gun".

FYU
 


Posted by Jomamason (Member # 14) on :
 
Some Yahoo up here just shot a hole in the pipeline yesterday. They'd lost about 90,000 barrels worth by the time they saw it and continue to loose about 160 gallons a minute. They don't know exactly how to fix the hole yet. They did arrest the Yahoo though..... Fucking people.....
 
Posted by Jomama (Member # 56) on :
 
Thought I'd bump this to the top with this article from the local paper up here.


ANWR oil would cut U.S. need slightly

ENERGY REPORT: Study requested by Murkowski is hailed by environmentalists.


By Liz Ruskin
Anchorage Daily News

(Published: March 13, 2002)
Washington -- It has been Sen. Frank Murkowski's (Republican-Alaska) main argument: Opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling will reduce America's dependence on foreign oil and make the country less beholden to countries like Saudi Arabia and Iraq.

Now environmentalists are trumpeting a new report that they say proves him wrong. Ironically, they note, the document was produced at the request of Murkowski.

The report, written by the U.S. Department of Energy, predicts that by 2020, if ANWR is not drilled, 62 percent of the oil consumed in the United States will be imported.

If ANWR is tapped, the report says, dependence would drop to 60 percent.

That's an insignificant difference, said Pete Rafle, a spokesman for The Wilderness Society.

"We think it really puts a fine point on the argument that we've been making all along, that Senator Murkowski's claims about the impact of Arctic refuge oil have been wildly inflated," Rafle said.

The U.S. Senate is in the midst of what is expected to be several weeks of debate on the energy bill, which includes Murkowski's proposal to open the refuge. Although Murkowski and the Bush administration say developing ANWR will boost the economy and create jobs, this report is one of several that say the impact of oil from the refuge would not be great on a world scale.

A Murkowski aide said the important point is that the report predicts a decrease in dependence in foreign sources if ANWR is developed.

"I guess it's better than going (from) 62 to 64 percent," said energy aide Dan Kish.

If you take the maximum estimate for the amount of oil in the refuge, dependence on foreign oil would drop to 57 percent, he said, citing the same report.

Rafle, though, said the high estimate is extremely unlikely -- a 1-in-20 possibility, according to previous government estimates on which the recent energy report relies.

Even the median estimate of ANWR oil, the one that would reduce imports to 60 percent from 62 percent, doesn't tell the whole story, Rafle said. It assumes that every barrel of technically recoverable oil would be produced, Rafle said, regardless of cost. If only the barrels that could be produced economically are considered, the impact of ANWR oil would hardly register, he said.

"We think it's remarkable that the study, even with it using numbers we think are much larger than the likely yield of the refuge, still shows that it barely makes a dent in our dependence on foreign oil," Rafle said.

The study's authors said the report stems from a request that Murkowski made in December to evaluate several energy proposals.

Kish, the Murkowski aide, didn't dispute the findings but noted that the same agency has called ANWR the country's best onshore prospect.

As for the projected 2 percentage-point drop in foreign oil dependence, "We don't look at it that way," Kish said.

ANWR would boost domestic production by 14 percent, he said. "And that's at the median level."

It would also increase revenues to the state by boosting the amount of oil that goes through the trans-Alaska oil pipeline, he said.

Senators spent much of Tuesday's energy debate arguing about stricter fuel economy standards for cars and trucks. Murkowski said his proposal to open the refuge would be among the last amendments that Republicans offer for the bill.

Also Tuesday, he and Sen. Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., won approval of an amendment that could provide $120 million over seven years to rural communities with high energy costs, and $5 million a year for the Alaska Power-Cost Equalization Program. The money would still have to be appropriated through a separate bill.


 


Posted by Jomama (Member # 56) on :
 
From today's NY Times:

ANWR and Peas

March 15, 2002

By PAUL KRUGMAN


"On Wednesday the Senate voted down a proposal by John Kerry
and John McCain to raise mileage standards on automobiles.
The outcome came as no surprise, but what does it mean?

"Was it yet another victory for special interests at the
expense of the national interest?

"No, it was much worse than that.

"What prevailed Wednesday
was an alliance between conservatives who hate the very
idea of conservation, on one side, and union leaders trying
to demonstrate their influence by making politicians jump.
It's the same alliance that, last summer, led the House to
support drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
(ANWR) by a surprisingly large margin.

"About ANWR: The Times recently had an eye-opening article
confirming something I had been hearing myself, that oil
companies are not behind the push for drilling there -
indeed, they are notably unexcited by the prospect. Studies
by the U.S. Geological Survey suggest why: Arctic oil is so
expensive to get at that it's barely worth extracting at
current market prices. For energy companies it's the rest
of the Bush energy plan, which would give them about $35
billion in tax breaks and subsidies, that really matters.

"But then why are the Bush administration and its allies so
vehement about ANWR? Pay no attention to rhetoric about
national security; the Kerry-McCain proposal would save
about three times as much oil per year as ANWR would
deliver even in its brief period of peak production.

"The real reason conservatives want to drill in ANWR is the
same reason they want to keep snowmobiles roaring through
Yellowstone: sheer symbolism. Forcing rangers to wear
respirators won't make much difference to snowmobile sales
- but it makes the tree-huggers furious, and that's what's
appealing about it. The same is true about Arctic drilling;
as one very moderate environmentalist told me, the reason
the Bush administration pursues high-profile
anti-environmental policies is not that they please special
interests but that they are "red meat for the right." (The
real special-interest payoffs come via less showy policies,
like the way the administration is undermining enforcement
of the Clean Air Act.)

"And what about the Teamsters union, which threw its support
behind the Bush plan? It claimed to be motivated by the
700,000 jobs ANWR drilling would supposedly create. One
suspects that the union's leadership knows that this figure
is at least 10 times too high. But the union's members
don't know that; so by making common cause with the anti-
environmental right the leaders can seem to be bringing
home the bacon.

"The debate over fuel efficiency played out according to the
same script. Conservative opponents of higher mileage
standards followed closely the guidelines laid down by Ed
Gillespie, the top Republican operative turned Enron
lobbyist, in a memo last April. He proposed selling the
administration's drill-and-burn energy plan by painting
conservationists as "eat your peas" types, who want to take
away our creature comforts. Sure enough, opponents
portrayed a modest proposal, which would have set a
36-mile-per-gallon standard 13 years from now, as an
immediate threat to the American way of life. Trent Lott
displayed a photo of a tiny 70-mile-per-gallon European
compact and declared, "I don't want every American to have
to drive this car."

"And senators who are indifferent to the air pollution that
kills thousands of Americans each year got all weepy at the
prospect - rejected by serious analysts - that making cars
more efficient would lead to more traffic fatalities.

"The surprise, though, is that this dishonest
anti-conservationism got crucial support from the United
Auto Workers. There's no good reason to think that higher
efficiency standards would actually cost any automobile
worker jobs; certainly fighting a modest mileage increase
phased over 15 years shouldn't be a priority for the
union's members. But as with the Teamsters and ANWR
drilling, fighting conservation gave the union's leadership
an opportunity to look powerful; the appearance, not the
reality, was what mattered.

"You may find it hard to believe that such crucial decisions
are driven by such petty concerns, that an alliance between
showboating union leaders and "drive 100 and freeze a
Yankee" conservatives could do so much damage to our
nation's future. But if that's what you think, you do not
know with how little wisdom the world is governed."
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/15/opinion/15KRUG.html?ex=1017215326&ei=1
&en=6d8e7f3d5d50bfce


Copyright 2002 The New York Times Company
 


Posted by Jomama (Member # 56) on :
 
LOL

http://www.theonion.com/onion3814/wdyt_3814.html
 


Posted by Cramer (Member # 5) on :
 
If we cannot drill for oil in a remote and desolate place like anwr, then where can we?

This is as stupid as the question of if we cannot cut taxes with a 3 trillion dollar surplus, when can we?

I love how both sides of these issues are as hypocritical as Bill Clinton talking about monogamy.

If the lawmakers can keep themselves in a gridlock status, the good thing is that we have not lost any more freedoms, or had any new taxes levied.


where is that fucking asteroid??????

 


Posted by RockLobster (Member # 45) on :
 
It missed..........I know, I was dissapointed too.....
 
Posted by Mikey (Member # 42) on :
 
That Gene Oliver guy is a fucking genious!! LOL
 
Posted by Jomama (Member # 56) on :
 
quote:
Originally posted by cramer:
If we cannot drill for oil in a remote and desolate place like anwr, then where can we?

How about the NPR (national petrolium reserve) ->thats what its there for..... (actually there are three new pads and more exploration going on this summer in NPR, I just saw the public notice at BLM the other day).

Hypocracy and misinformation, so true, so true.....

Its likely that this has just been a shell game, they didn't get ANWR open, but its likely that more places in the lower 48 will be opened in trade. ANWR was just more pork-barreling by Alaska's senators. BP/ARCO nor any other oil company was pushing to open it, primarily civilian and lobbiest who want a larger permanent fund check (see: payoff)


Why wait for the asteroid???? Once we're out of oil everything will be fucked. It may take generations, but it'll happen. Since we're not taking steps towards significant conservation, and new energy source research just isn't far enough along (plus our I believe the current admin just cut research funds for alt energy), we're screwed. Even with a new energy source, that won't help that absolutly everything in developed nations depends on oil (not just transportation and power). Anyone use a computer? anyone eat beef? anyone wear materials other than cotton,leather & wool? (all impossible w/out oil) Our whole society is petrolium dependent, and there is no real substitue, at least for now............

But hey, why be concerned, it'll all work out right????

Chicken Little.

[This message has been edited by Jomama (edited 04-23-2002).]
 


Posted by Hauserdaddy (Member # 50) on :
 
Ill start using that corn gas right away


Most people dont realize we may someday run out. They have more important things on their minds like making that nail and hair appointment. lol

If them damn electric cars werent so ugly....
 


Posted by Jomama (Member # 56) on :
 
Here's info on NPR and some other stuff if truely interested.

http://pubs.usgs.gov/factsheet/fs024-01/fs024-01.pdf
http://www.r7.fws.gov/nwr/arctic/devmap.html
 


Posted by Mikey (Member # 42) on :
 
Hey Hauser-dork where do you think electricity comes from......Burned coal and oil would still be the number one source of our electricity.
 
Posted by Jomama (Member # 56) on :
 
I pretty optimistic that breakthru's in science will occur. Fusions a substitute energy that could meet what current use demands.
http://web.gat.com/

However this won't help that most "goods" are almost solely made from petrolium.......

[This message has been edited by Jomama (edited 04-23-2002).]
 


Posted by . (Member # 20) on :
 
If only one asteroid can do the job why not hope for two:

http://www.news.cornell.edu/releases/April02/Asteroids.Margot.deb.html

"16 percent of so-called near-Earth asteroids (NEAs) larger than 200 meters in diameter are likely to be binary systems"

"Astronomers have long speculated about the existence of binary NEAs, based in part on impact craters on Earth. Of about 28 known terrestrial impact craters with diameters greater than 20 kilometers, at least three are double craters formed by impacts of objects about the same size as the newly discovered binaries"

A global impact event would be like putting the muzzle of a 12 gauge right in your mouth and pulling the trigger - very messy but instantaneous. I foresee a long, drawn out wasting of the human race. Like having cancer or a parasite that slowly spreads through your body, poisoning every cell, consuming everything. Large doses of radiation or medication keep it at bay, but it eventually kills you after what seems like eons of suffering. How ironic.

 


Posted by Jomama (Member # 56) on :
 
two-for-one, what a GREAT DEAL
 
Posted by BoondockSaint (Member # 67) on :
 
What's the number on the Alaskan oil reserve? Apparently 90% of the worlds oil comes from the middle east. Open up the Alaska reserve and only 87% comes from the mideast. (I may be wrong, but I understand it's very little, or unknown).

Of course, I have no idea, and I'm just pleased to be working for a company that's part of the solution. Yeah, yeah you've heard it before...but it's true.

Bring on the asteroid? Nah, I'll just take a quick death when a bus explodes next to me on the highway full of civilians.

In this pathetic world what is the solution?

Invade, attack, destroy. Kill em all.
 


Posted by Jomama (Member # 56) on :
 
In truth, no-one knows for certain how much oil is there (if any). They did do a very limited amount of seismic surveys and thats where the #'s get thrown around by both sides (the min amount by the enviros & the max est. by the pro-drillers). If these est. are correct it would only reduce foreign dependence by 2-4%. I know 2 geologist who work for BP and they said that they are serious guestaments though. They also said that much of the oil under ANWR could be extracted anyway, without placing anything inside ANWR's boundary, they have the capability to basically drill sideways or at an angle, so the pad could be outside ANWR, and then drill at an angle underneath it. Like I said the oil companies themselves have basically stayed out of it and haven't pushed for it.

It does look promising that they're gonna build a natural gas pipeling alongside the trans-alaska pipe, it'll then cut into Canada which has a substantial nat gas infrastructure already, and I think the intended terminus is Chicago......
 


Posted by Jomama (Member # 56) on :
 
This link shows what countries we import oil from. Its about 50-50 OPEC and NON-OPEC countries.......

h ttp://204.29.171.80/framer/navigation.asp?charset=utf-8&cc=US&frameid=1565&lc=en-us&providerid=113&realname=Department+of+Energy&uid=3639928&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.doe.gov%2F

that didn't work????? you have to go into the link farther, go to A-Z index, Oil, Petrolium use and supply statistics, and the HTML file.

[This message has been edited by Jomama (edited 04-23-2002).]
 


Posted by Jomama (Member # 56) on :
 
Report ups oil estimate
PETROLEUM RESERVE: Region could yield 10 billion barrels


By Tony Hopfinger
Anchorage Daily News

(Published: May 17, 2002)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


A huge swath of the Alaska Arctic west of today's oil fields could yield more than 10 billion barrels of oil, five times as much as previously thought, a new government report estimates.

The study of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska said it is unlikely that a Prudhoe Bay-sized field lies beneath the reserve. But if oil prices are high enough, smaller pools of oil could be developed and Alaska would have another significant oil province.

The numbers U.S. Geological Survey officials released Thursday for NPR-A, an area roughly the size of Indiana, are comparable to their estimates of the much smaller Arctic National Wildlife Refuge's coastal plain east of the North Slope fields.

Last month, amid opposition from environmentalists, the U.S. Senate defeated a proposal to allow oil companies to explore the coastal plain.

But unlike ANWR, nearly 1 million acres in NPR-A are open to oil drilling. And on June 3, federal land managers will take bids for rights to explore 3 million more acres in the northeast corner of the reserve.

State leaders hope new oil leases, exploration and updated estimates will push drillers west of the state's prolific but declining Prudhoe Bay and Kuparuk oil fields.

"Hopefully, they will now go after the oil because the state is facing a future of lower oil production," said Chuck Logsdon, the state's chief petroleum economist.

Geologists have long believed the reserve holds vast oil accumulations. After all, crude seeps generously to the surface along the Arctic Coast. But more than 100 wells drilled since the 1940s have yet to yield any production.

In 1980, federal geologists' mean estimate of NPR-A oil was 2.1 million barrels.

The new study provides a mean estimate of 10.6 billion barrels. The USGS said there's a high probability of at least 6.7 billion barrels that technically could be recovered, with a low probability of at least 15 billion barrels. They also predict the reserve holds a mean of 61.4 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. Their estimates include oil in federal, state offshore and Native land.

The amount that could be recovered would vary widely with the price of oil. Oil companies wouldn't produce any oil at prices below $21 a barrel. At $25, the USGS estimates 3.7 billion barrels produced.

By comparison, oil within existing North Slope fields totals about 20 billion barrels. Companies have tapped more than half of that since oil began flowing down the trans-Alaska oil pipeline in 1977.

In making their new estimates, geologists were armed with data from new oil fields just outside the reserve and new exploration technology.

Alpine, a 429 million-barrel oil field just east of NPR-A that started up 18 months ago, played a key role in the updated analysis. Geologists believe the reserve contains sandstone structures like those found around Alpine.

Phillips Alaska Inc., the oil company that runs Alpine, is also betting on the reserve. It has punched nine wells in the northeast corner since 1999.

Last year Phillips said it discovered three promising oil prospects that are about the size of Alpine. Details on those discoveries, however, remain confidential, and Phillips hasn't said what it found at three wells drilled this year.

State oil experts said the new estimates confirm NPR-A is a promising frontier in a state where oil production peaked 13 years ago. Oil fees and taxes to fund nearly 80 percent of the state general budget.

NPR-A could help offset declining oil fields like Prudhoe, where production is falling about 10 percent a year. The state's new revenue forecast anticipates oil will begin flowing from the reserve in 2007, with perhaps 75,000 barrels a day by 2010.

Still, the federally owned reserve wouldn't pump as much money into Alaska's budget as oil produced on state land. The state and federal governments would split NPR-A royalties equally, Logsdon said.

Tapping the reserve remains a huge chore. The oil is probably in hard-to-find traps scattered over hundreds of miles. And companies would have to extend pipelines from their eastern oil fields to siphon oil from the reserve.

The development challenges don't escape U.S. Sen. Frank Murkowski, R-Alaska. He called the report heartening but added that ANWR's coastal plain remains the nation's best onshore prospect for a huge discovery.

"Development in the coastal plain would be far more concentrated, likely improving the economics and certainly lessening the environmental impacts," Murkowski said Thursday.

A 1998 federal study found the coastal plain could hold up to 16 billion barrels, with a mean of 10.4 billion barrels.

The refuge could hold several giant oil fields, each ranging from 500 million to more than 1 billion barrels. NPR-A might have only one field of more than 500 million barrels, according to the Geological Survey.

The report also says it would cost less to produce oil from ANWR.

When oil fetches $20 to $30 a barrel, the amount of economically recoverable oil in ANWR is 3.2 billion to 6.3 billion barrels.

But in the same price range, the amount of recoverable oil in NPR-A is between zero and 5.6 billion barrels. Alaska North Slope crude closed Thursday at $27.11 a barrel.


http://www.adn.com/front/story/1111406p-1218724c.html

There is a accompanying picture to the story.....

 


Posted by Jomama (Member # 56) on :
 
BP bowing out of ANWR lobbying group
HURT: Oil giant's pullout will take $50,000 yearly from Arctic Power's pocketbook.

By Liz Ruskin
Anchorage Daily News

(Published: November 26, 2002)
Washington -- As the lobbying group Arctic Power gears up for yet another year of trying to persuade Congress to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling, Alaska's second-largest oil producer has dropped out of the effort.

BP Alaska told Arctic Power last week that it would no longer contribute money to the group and that the company's representative on the board was resigning.

"It's not a message about ANWR at all," said BP Alaska spokesman Paul Laird. "It's simply a business decision that BP made that it no longer wants to be part of the debate."

He said BP paid annual dues of $50,000.

"It's definitely a hit financially," said Kim Duke, executive director of Arctic Power. "It's disappointing."

The news was cheered in the Washington offices of the U.S. Public Interest Research Group.

"We've been targeting BP for four years to get them to finally live up to their green logo and green image," said Athan Manual, director of U.S. PIRG's Arctic wilderness campaign. "This is a really big step."

Arctic Power, devoted solely to opening ANWR, gets most of its funding from the state. Last year the Legislature granted it $3.5 million.

The 19 million-acre refuge in northeastern Alaska is closed to drilling, but Congress has struggled for years over whether to open 1.5 million acres on the coastal plain.

The House last year passed a bill opening ANWR, but the Democrat-controlled Senate did not. The fight will begin anew in 2003, but this time with Republicans in control of the House, the Senate and the White House.

Manual said Arctic Power lost more than money with BP's withdrawal.

"I think it undercuts (Arctic Power's) credibility on the Hill," he said. "Their prestige and influence is diminished a bit."

Duke said she sees BP's move as another sign that Alaska isn't as important to the big firms operating there as it once was.

BP has significant operations elsewhere in the world.

The oil giant has been scaling back its Alaska work force and said it won't explore far afield from its existing North Slope wells.

"The companies have such an international focus now," Duke said.

Still, she can't imagine BP would walk away from ANWR if Congress decides to allow development there.

"I think once it's open, they would definitely be involved," she said. "It's the biggest onshore prospect in the entire country."

Environmentalists hope BP will decide it can't afford the bad publicity that would accompany the development of an area that's become the poster region for the conservation movement.

BP has been working for more than two years to remake itself in a greener image. It has embraced solar energy and changed its motto to "Beyond Petroleum."

Meanwhile, BP's chief executive, Lord John Browne, announced in March a new worldwide policy of not funding political activities or political parties.

Laird said the company will stay out of the debate but not necessarily out of ANWR itself.

"When and if a decision is made to open it, we'll evaluate the decision on the basis of whether it's going to be commercial for us and whether the opportunities in ANWR are competitive with investment opportunities elsewhere in the world," he said.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Reporter Liz Ruskin can be reached at 1-202-383-0007 or lruskin@adn.com
 
Posted by Jomama (Member # 56) on :
 
Not really ANWR, but Oil related.

http://www.adn.com/front/story/2603342p-2650022c.html

NPR-A options on table
HEARINGS: Public can express opinions on oil reserve Thursday.

More Information

By Wesley Loy
Anchorage Daily News

(Published: February 11, 2003)
With oil drillers effectively locked out of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, another mammoth chunk of North Slope tundra is drawing more attention -- and conflict.

Like ANWR, the vast National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska to the west could harbor lots of oil and gas, and oil companies would like to get at it. But conservationists, particularly those concerned about the reserve's rich bird life, say mixing oil fields and feathers won't fly.

The debate could heat up Thursday in Anchorage, when the federal Bureau of Land Management will hold a public hearing on options for opening a new 8.8 million-acre swath of the reserve.

"There's a wide diversity of opinion about what is the best way to use the public land," said Curt Wilson, chief of planning and environmental coordination with the Alaska BLM office.

Wilson helped draft a 1,000-page environmental report on options for using the reserve's midsection, known as the Northwest Planning Area. This would be the second of the reserve's three zones to be studied for possible oil and gas development.

Alternatives range from making the whole area available to oil and gas exploration to none at all.

The BLM hasn't yet chosen a preferred alternative. And it won't until Nov. 3, when the agency hopes to publish a final decision. In the meantime, people are encouraged to weigh in with written or oral comments, Wilson said.

President Warren G. Harding created a 23 million-acre reserve by executive order in 1923, citing the "large seepages of petroleum along the Arctic coast of Alaska."

The coast held plenty of oil, all right, but it was found a good 60 miles or so east of the reserve at Prudhoe Bay in 1967.

Oil has since been pumped from other fields on Prudhoe's flanks, but none has come from the remote petroleum reserve. Developing oil and gas from there likely would require hundreds of miles of roads and pipelines to tie it into the trans-Alaska oil pipeline.

Some apparently successful drilling was done recently in the reserve's northeastern corner. In 2001, oil company Conoco Phillips, the state's top oil producer, announced it had found three promising oil and gas prospects there.

Overall, the reserve is hardly pristine. After Harding's executive order, and over a span of six decades, the U.S. government conducted drilling programs in what formerly was known as the Naval Petroleum Reserve. That drilling found only a few small oil and gas fields.

Last year the U.S. Geological Survey issued a new estimate of the reserve's oil and gas potential. It likely contains between 5.9 billion and 13.2 billion barrels of undiscovered, technically recoverable oil, with industry likely to move 1.3 billion to 5.6 billion barrels to market so long as oil prices are $22 to $30 per barrel, according to the estimate. It adds that the reserve likely also holds vast stores of natural gas.

For the oilmen, a tantalizing feature is the Barrow Arch, a potentially oil-rich geologic vein that cuts across Prudhoe Bay and west through the reserve, including the middle zone now being considered for development. The industry spent $100 million in 1999 for exploration leases in the reserve's first, or northeast, zone. Industry players were disappointed that the Clinton administration excluded from that sale 600,000 acres overlying some of the Barrow Arch because the wetlands are nesting areas for brant, Canada geese, peregrine falcons and other birds.

The BLM's environmental study says oil and gas exploration and development would destroy, at most, 1,500 acres of soil and vegetation.

Once the public review process is complete, the BLM hopes to hold an oil and gas lease sale for oil explorers in May or June 2004, Wilson said. The state and federal governments would split proceeds from those sales.

The public hearing will run from 7:30 to 10:30 p.m. Thursday in Loussac Library's first-floor conference room. BLM staffers will be around for questions beginning at 5:30 p.m.

To see the environmental assessment, visit the BLM in the federal courthouse, 222 W. Seventh Ave., or go to aurora.ak.blm.gov/npra/. For more information, call 907-271-3318.

Reporter Wesley Loy can be reached at wloy@adn.com or 907-257-4590.

http://www.adn.com/front/story/2603341p-2650018c.html

Audubon's alternative
NPR-A: Compromise would allow oil and protect wildlife, group says.

By Doug O'Harra
Anchorage Daily News

(Published: February 11, 2003)
Scientists with Alaska Audubon have written a "wildlife habitat" alternative for oil and gas exploration in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska.

Proposed as a compromise, the Audubon plan would leave most of the high-potential oil and gas area open to development while blocking or restricting leases in habitat most sensitive to waterbirds, threatened spectacled eiders, caribou and polar bears.

"We charged ourselves with identifying the highest, most valuable wildlife and fish habitat," said biologist John Schoen, chief scientist for Audubon in Alaska. "This is our best cut on protecting those areas while being sensitive to oil potential."

"We think there's a lot of room for a careful approach that's going to leave a significant area open for oil and gas leasing," added Stan Senner of Audubon Alaska. "We think that's a different kind of note than what's previously been heard from the environmental community.

"Usually it's 'draw a line in the sand and no more.' That's not going to work here."

Audubon scientists plan to present their alternative as part of the public comment on a 1,000-page draft environmental impact study that will govern the next wave of oil exploration across Alaska's Arctic. The group has also conducted a broader study of biological resources in the entire 23.5 million-acre petroleum reserve, with recommendations for special management areas to protect wildlife.

The federal Bureau of Land Management is conducting the study process. BLM planner Curt Wilson said that he has not read Audubon's proposals but that the agency is willing to incorporate new scientific information into a final plan.

"We usually get very, very serious substantive comments from environmental organizations, from the borough and state, and from the oil companies," Wilson said.

What's termed the Northwest Planning Area of NPR-A holds 8.8 million acres of tundra and lake-dotted wetlands.

It stretches from just west of existing oil leases near Teshekpuk Lake to Icy Cape on the Chukchi Sea, from the bluffs along the Colville River to Point Barrow. It includes the villages of Barrow, Atqusuk and Wainwright, and important subsistence grounds. There are deep lakes, nesting sites and rivers with anadromous fish. Across its vastness is woven a complex ecological tapestry populated by waterbirds, raptors, brown bears, wolves, musk oxen, caribou, whales, seals and polar bears.

The northeast corner of this area is of particular interest. It holds about 1.1 million acres that federal planners say has high to moderate potential for oil and gas development, depending on the price of oil. Yet much of this zone also contains some of the most sensitive biological habitat.

While the three BLM alternatives vary widely in the total amount of area open to oil and gas leasing, two of the three choices would open all or most of this high-potential area to exploration. A third alternative would close all but 2 percent of this area to leasing, a choice that planners say will probably mean no development.

"We tried to build alternatives so we cover the extreme range, from full development to almost no development," Wilson said. "That allows us to chose something in between without having to start over again."

The Audubon proposal arose from a study of biological hot spots across the entire region, compiled over the past two years by a team of scientists using hundreds of studies and reports. The $125,000 project has produced detailed maps showing wildlife concentrations and habitat use. Co-sponsors are the Nature Conservancy of Alaska and the Conservation GIS Center.

For the 8.8 million-acre NPR-A northwest area, Audubon recommended creating special management areas along Kasegaluk Lagoon to protect beluga whales; along Peard Bay to protect shorebird and waterfowl nesting habitat as well as polar bear denning areas; along a southern portion of Ikpikpuk River with high densities of peregrine falcons; and along Dease Inlet with habitat used by birds, marine mammals, bears and caribou.

No oil leasing would be allowed on about 2.1 million acres; surface activities would be restricted on about 260,000 acres (mainly Dease Inlet); and special stipulations would apply to about 368,000 acres where yellow-billed loons and the threatened spectacled eiders nest.

The conservation proposal would prohibit leasing on about 405,000 acres where it overlaps the high-potential oil exploration grounds. But the proposal would still allow oil and gas exploration on about 65 percent of that land, Schoen and Senner said.

"We're trying to come up with a commonsense approach," Schoen said. "We don't oppose development. We want to make sure that development is planned and has minimal impact on biological resources."

Doug O'Harra can be reached at do'harra@adn.com and 907-257-4334.
 


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