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drilling because of the cost of moving platforms; but also has increased substantially the amount of oil that could be withdrawn from existing wells, so now it is done on land wells also.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.
Harry,
How is this different from what I said?
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.
All it takes is one oil spill and one of the few remaining pristine areas of this country is gone for good.
The sad part about all this is that no one is certain exactly how much oil is in ANWAR....it may not be worth all the exploratory drilling that is anticipated.
I have nothing against enviromentalists. But the idea that our country will be better off enviromentally without development is just plain hogwash.
Look around, Harry, the country has a lot of development.
Environmentalists are trying to keep what's not developed left that way.
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.
No one said that technology is all bad...it has done good as well as bad. What people are trying to do now is find a balance that mitigates the bad and emphasizes the good.......not a bad goal in my book.
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.
The monarch is a good example. Like many species of insects and animal, the monarch is stressed. Its winter habitat in Mexico is under duress; so are it summer resting spots in the US. Can you understand that it can't take being poisoned by anything. The world's ecosystem is beginning to struggle, we are losing new species everyday...there is a rare bird in Hawaii that has an incredible song..the last one was seen 5 years ago. This is being repeated everywhere in the world.
A point will be reached when man will begin to struggle because the environment has become too degraded. For every action there is a reaction. There is always a price to be paid when there are missteps and man is making a lot of missteps. And, unfortunately, our technology is just not that good...not yet anyways.
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.
There is an alternative..conservation. Other developed countries are doing it..why can't we? Many countries through rail subsidies strongly support rail systems that are effective in transporting people, using less fuel per person than other means of transportion. Some of these subsidies are made possible by taxes placed on gas consumption which in turn encourages a reduction in consumption.
The demand for good rail by these countries has resulted in trains that now have speeds that exceed 200 mph and make 500 mile trips a great and fast experience as opposed to being jammed into a plane. However we in the US are still trying to decide whether we want a passenger rail system at all. On many routes the equipment is over 20 years old. In spite of that, rail ridership has increased substantially in the last few years. Where there were 4 trains per day on the route between LA and San Diego [of all places], there are not 24.
This rail debate has gone on for 20 years with the major concern of Congress being the millions to be spent on subsidies. This is the same Congress that blows billions on a star wars defense system that never gets built but suddenly becomes very niggardly when it has to deal with trains.
This is one of many examples where we choose to lag behind other countries, and are unwilling to take the necessary steps to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels. Where we seemingly refuse to take advantage of technology to improve our lives and the environment simultaneously. Scumbria talks about leaving a legacy of budget debt to our children......add to that our need for obsessive consumption.
ted |
