Drill Baby Research Paper

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Drill Baby, Drill Drilling for oil and natural gas has been an ongoing political controversy for many years, decades even. The issue has been used by both of the two major political parties, Democrat and Republican, as a political device. This has most recently been seen in the 2008 election between Republican candidate John McCain and Democratic candidate Barack Obama. The question of drilling for oil in the United States has been brought to the attention of the government and national media many times before, but in recent years much light has been shed on the issue. The need for oil is a problem that is facing not only the government, but the general public as well. As the United States enters into a new presidency the subject of oil…show more content…
Natural gas is an energy source that is clean, safe and extremely useful. Natural gas is colorless, odorless, and shapeless when it is in its pure form (Naturalgas.org). This gas however gives off a great deal of energy when it is burned. Natural gas can directly play a part in reducing greenhouse emissions, strengthening energy security and helping the growing economy (aga.org). The United States consumes roughly 600 billion cubic meters of natural gas every year while we only produce about 500 billion cubic meters. ANWR could hold trillions of cubic meters of uncovered natural gas. North America is said to contain 3 percent of the world’s natural gas (naturalgas.org). Natural gas has been discovered in the north Alaskan region but it has been said that it is only the tip of the iceberg and that there is much more to be found. According to a spokesman there is some eight billion cubic feet of natural gas is drawn from existing fields in the ANWR every single day that is re-injected into the ground because there is no pipeline to carry the gas to the United States or Canada (Nationalgeographic.com). Eight billion cubic feet of natural gas is more then half of what American consumers use in a single day. Natural gas and fossil fuels are a nonrenewable resource, but we are far from running out. However, with the research that is being conducted on natural gas fueling…show more content…
It would lower American dependency on foreign oil and petroleum imports. Natural gas lines running from Alaska to the United States would dramatically lower the prices of heating and cooling costs in the homes of American citizens. The oil companies would take every precaution to protect the ecosystem and the wilderness environment in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, while still gaining the support of the majority of the Alaskan citizens, but also the majority of the United States. Alternative energy research will still be conducted and funded in the coming years while America continues to run on fossil fuels and natural resources. It would be foolish for any person to deny that alternative energy sources need to be researched, but until it is economically sound to make the switch the United States needs to run on something that is dependable and that we know will continue to work. The economic value of developing the mere 2,000 acres in the Coastal Plain in the ANWR region of Alaska would be immense and simply cannot be looked over. There would be hundreds of thousands of new jobs available for people in every state and the revenues earned by the American government would be huge. In a time where American citizens are in fear of a new great depression a 700,000+ need for new jobs in the market

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