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Apr 30, 2008 9:42 am US/Central
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In The Know: ANWR Won't Help Today's Gas Prices
(WCCO)
The president said he's worried about high gas prices and he's urging Congress to OK oil exploration in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Don Shelby said oil in the ANWR won't affect the cost to fill up today.
There are really two reasons why petroleum is flirting with $120 a barrel. One is simple supply and demand. The amount being pumped from the world's oil fields can't keep up with our demand for it. And two, the dollar is very weak. If a dollar was worth what it once was, the price of oil would be about $80 per barrel.
Now President Bush thinks we can do something about the supply by drilling the 10.5 billion barrels suspected of being in the ANWR.
No one really knows how much, if any, is actually there. Environmental concerns aside, it would take 10 to 20 years of exploration and pipeline building to get that oil from the ANWR to the world market. So, drilling today in the ANWR won't have any effect on the price we are currently paying.
Now Congressman Roscoe Bartlett, R-Md., votes against ANWR every time it comes up.
He says, "Leave it there. Use up, with efficient vehicles, the world's supply and we'll always have the ANWR in reserve when the rest of the world runs dry."
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