Ted Re...<<<They said because most of the platforms will be on land they can contain any spill. And then they showed how they could suck the oil out from a huge radius with just one drill platform.....sort of like a kid sucking on a straw. So when you hear that sucking sound, be aware.......<<<<
Ted, the ability to drill sideways underground has been around for years. It was developed for deepwater drilling because of the cost of moving platforms; but also has increased substantially the amount of oil that could be withdrawn from existing wells, so now it is done on land wells also. In fact part of Saddam's reason for the gulf war was that he felt the Kuwaitis were drilling sideways.
In any case, there is nothing to be concerned about..when the caribou are pregnant, the oil drillers promise they will not bother them (the caribou need to be alone when they give birth)....and when the snow geese come to mate, the oil drillers promise to keep away.<<<
Certainly once the wells are drilled; no one needs to man them. I doubt if a caribou will not give birth because there is a building there instead of a tree; and each pump could easily be fenced off so the caribou can't see any movement. Are there risks? Of course. But, managed properly, the risks are miminal. The leaks from the Alaskan pipeline have been mininal; and that technology is 35 yrs old. Drilling Anwar is inevitable. Prudoe bay now provides 22% of our energy needs, but is declining.
I have nothing against enviromentalists. But the idea that our country will be better off enviromentally without development is just plain hogwash. Its hogwash because without the gains we have made in science and technology,the country would be far worse off. For instance, without natural gas drilling, how many forests would we have left if people used wood for heat; and how polluted would this country be if 60% of the people were still heating with coal? Many asian countries, along with India and surrounding countries would have been decimated without new rice strains. In this country, while many people have concerns about biotech corn, lets face it; altered corn as well as other crops, will be able to do away with pesticides, by putting insects natural poisons into a plant which doesn't have them. It has been shown that the monarch butterfly; if it digests the pollen will be poisoned; which is partially true. But we need to balance that with how many monarchs would have been poisoned with insecticides. On balance, the monarchs will be better off, and so will we. You could say "no insecticides or altered crops", which not only would result in starvation in this country, but also result in massive over fishing and hunting. Ultimately, by doing away with pesticides, our enviroment will be better off, but we will still have the ability to feed ourselves.
10 yrs ago I went to an enviromental presentation. And in the conference they just discussed conservation, and dissed development. The topper was that they praised the people in Mozembue and Tanzania for how little resources they used. Fine but look at those two countries, and ask yourself; are they better off without development? And any fair minded person I believe would say no. The countries are a desert because all of the trees have been stripped for firewood, and they cannot feed themselves because of a lack of agriculture. This country itself could have many more deserts if not for the conservation plans of the FDR era, which planted trees to stop the wind. Logging itself, can be helpful to forests, if it is done to take out the dead and old growth trees before the forests become tinderboxes. And when forests become tinderboxes, when they do burn, such as the Los Alamos fire last yr, the fires are not only uncontrolable, but the fire burns so hot, it destroys even the sturdiest of trees, which would have withstood a normal fire. By not allowing logging or fires in the Northwest, you may be just setting yourself up for catastrophic fires later on. By not allowing drilling in Anwar, and other areas, you will force this country to do without oil; or pay OPEC. But don't bet that the unforseen consequences will not harm this counrty enviromentally more than the drilling itself. |
