Straddling the Anwar Fence. Ouch.

It is estimated that the Anwar area contains about 10 billion barrels of oil. Some loudly and gleefully proclaim Anwar will supply us all with cheap gas for another 200 years. Let's look at some numbers. In America, where we use 1/4 of the world's oil, we gobble up 20 million barrels a day. If we used Anwar at that rate, it will provide just about 500 days of fuel for our country. That's hardly 200 years. Another point to consider is Anwar Peaking. The first half of an oil field's reserves are pretty easy to get. Often internal pressure forces the stuff above ground. The second half is much harder to get, and generally of inferior quality. So, realistically, we could have 250 days of reasonably cheap oil, and then another 250 of expensive and harder to get fuel. Now Anwar, and other areas will take about 8 to 10 years to get online, according to reports. No matter what we do, this is not a source that will be available tomorrow, or this year, or next year. Since global fuel use is increasing daily, and we here will not drive 55, or demand our traffic flow system gets fixed, or quit building suburbs 30 miles away from cities, I don't see a lot of hope. Doing these things might even remove the need for drilling in protected areas, but it doesn't look like we're ready to consider conservation measures.

Our attitude seems to be: "You'll take away my SUV when you pry my cold dead toes from around the accelerator."

I would consider voting to lift the ban on exploring for domestic oil in pristine areas if and only if:

1. It is undeniably and absolutely essential to maintaining service and foods to Americans, and that we have a serious national dialogue about it. 2. We do NOT draw from our strategic oil reserves, except in times of Dire national emergencies, 3. We implement a strong and realistic national plan specifically for an interruption in oil supply and put those plans in place nationally and locally, 4. We start immediate rebuilding of our once-efficient railroad systems, We truck our big rig diesel freight haulers on rail whenever possible. Rail is so much cheaper than big trucks, and will allow the drivers to snooze and save enormously on diesel fuel costs. 5. We institute an immediate crash program to fix our ineffectual and broken traffic flow, 6. We tax gas hog vehicles, and cars designed solely for high horsepower and acceleration. Why build a car that does 140 out the door, when legal speed limits are far less? 7. An equal amount of capital is put into alternative energy, 8. We discuss lowering the national speed limit to 55. An unpopular stance, but would you rather be hungry or speed really fast to the next stoplight? 9. We stop the huge tax breaks and write-offs to the oil companies, 10. We plug the loopholes which allow speculative traders, commodities brokers, and hedge fund operators from artificially driving up the price of oil, raise margin requirements, and put some real teeth into regulating our financial markets. 11. We empower and enable the innovative thinkers among us, who are working on reasonable and real, EV Hybrids, instead of focusing on boondoggles like the Phoenix hybrid car which may never happen. 12. We allow our farmers to grow industrial hemp for supplemental bio-diesel, and cellulosic bio-fuels, and renewable bio-mass.

Advocating drilling for oil in our protected lands is a bad position for a Green like me, and I will inevitably draw the ire and fire of my fellows and a lot of negativity. But, if the choice is between drawing new domestic oil, and letting our culture collapse, I must in good conscience follow the former. As, I think, should all reasoning people. If we have the national will to institute all of the above, then perhaps it is time to meagerly and sparingly use new oil. And to use it to great and maximum advantage. If however, we continue to fuel our fossil folly, at current limits, then, I object and protest.

The fault here lies not with the conservationists who want to save this oil for the future and not use it all up. The fault lies with our past 100 years of development of the automobile by big industry, and our refusal to pressure them into building highly efficient cars. (Read "Internal Combustion -- How corporations and governments addicted the world to oil and derailed the alternatives", by Edwin Black) By our mindlessly listening to the advertising industry which cons us into believing that new fast cars are really sexy, and that if we don't have one we'll be socially unacceptable, and won't get laid. Our cars currently get just about the same mileage or less than Henry Ford's early cars. We have made no significant improvement in mileage, and have totally ignored and ridiculed President Carter's attempts to get CAFE standards implemented, and his other warnings about our energy use and calls for conservation. What a shame. If we all realized just how desperately dependent on cheap energy we are, then surely we would be working on solutions at all levels. The daily food we all eat is almost entirely due to cheap oil reserves. Our whole society is, and perhaps we are now entering the faze of realizing that. Especially with such high gas prices. American ingenuity, are you still out there?

Cheap oil affects all facets of our lives. We've got a long hot summer ahead, and a possibly even worse cold dark winter coming quickly. Is your house heated by natural gas? If so, will your heater work if the electric goes out? Most systems rely on electric to turn the air fans, and even allow the gas to ignite. If there's no electric, you won't have heat. Perhaps it is time to find this out before freezing winter gets here. If you are courageous enough, here is a little experiment you can do. On your next day off, go outside and turn off the main power switch to your electric box. Leave it off for 24 hours. This will give you some idea of how much we need our cheap energy infrastructure, and how vital our power system is to the running of our America. Sitting in the dark may give you a clue on how addicted we are. I use electric here only as an example covering just one facet of our energy requirements. Because our grid is also dependent on cheap oil, one way or another. Everything is interconnected, and one missing piece (e.g. cheap oil) may eventually bring the whole system tumbling down.

So I'm straddling the Anwar fence. It is uncomfortable, and a no-win situation. It's poking me in the bottom and is sharp. But at least I'm not ignoring it and pretending that everything will be ok, and that capitalism is going to save us all. Everything is NOT ok. Nature has big sharp pointy teeth, and will bite us all without exception. To think otherwise is suicidal and foolish.

We are motorized lemmings, rapidly driving toward the cliff. Good luck.