anwr

Arctic National Wildlife Refuge; recently opened for oil drilling with the full support of the Republican majority in the Senate. An area from which 60% of the oil excavated will be exported to other nations rather than, as the Republicans are selling it, used as "a first step towards energy independence". The United States Geological Survey has found that the accurate amount of usable oil to be found in ANWR is roughly 3.2 billion barrels, or a six-month supply if 100% of this oil was to be used domestically, which it won't be. This figure varies startlingly with the severely faulty figure of 16 billion barrels that pro-drilling Alaskan Senator Murkowski frequently mentions. The amount of wildlife found in the area and the myriad ways in which the region will be damaged by oil drilling are played down as much as possible by Republicans and others in favor of drilling, although numerous studies and reports have found that the area would be irreversibly affected by such drilling. Populations of Caribou and fish that native tribes such as the Gwich'in rely on for food and other practical purposes would be dented considerably. A piece of land that was to go untainted by the malicious grope of corporate greed until the GOP took power once more.