Oil Drilling example essay topic

Alaskan Oil drilling: To drill or not to drill? For a drug addict to quit a drug, the best solutions for the addict would be to slowly wean them self off the drug periodically. America can be viewed in a parallel way on its dependency for oil. America needs another source of oil to slowly lessen its overwhelming dependency on foreign oil and to help the process of finding another mass energy source.

The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge better known as the ANWR is a rich treasure of oil and gas that can help lessen Americas need for foreign resources. Drilling on the ANWR will not only help the American economy, but will also help aid America in the future. Many ask "why do we need this oil in Alaska? Is it to make America a more dominant world power? Is it to increase pollution by getting more oil?" The answer is, no. America's stance is conservation and alternative sources of energy, however, the US cannot switch to another energy resource over night.

America needs another reserve to tap into to be removed from Middle Eastern dependency. The US needs something so that its foreign policy is not seized captive by its need for oil. As the US tries to develop new sources of energy the ANWR is a reserve that should be tapped into to help free up the oil dependency. Drilling on the ANWR would significantly help the American economy as a whole. Opening up the ANWR would help diminish our binds to the Middle East and help our own economy by creating massive amounts of American jobs; figures from TIME magazine project that between 250,000 and 735,000 jobs will open up in the US as a result of ANWR drilling.

In Virginia alone about 28,000 jobs will be created such as engineers and oil supply developers. The drilling will affect each state in some way weather it be transportation, stocking, manufacturing or a vast number of jobs. What better way to help American citizens than making national jobs instead of creating foreign jobs. Most individuals may think that drilling and transporting oil on the ANWR will put many animals in danger, when in all reality the animals and their environment will be subjected to little or no danger. There are many reasons for this. Firstly, a great deal of oil drilling experience has already been learned in the Arctic area because of previous drilling done at Prudhoe Bay, which has taught oil companies extensive safety precautions in the drilling and transporting of oil.

Prudhoe Bay which is only couple miles from the ANWR and currently Americas largest source of oil is said to rival the amount of oil on the ANWR. Moreover, the ANWR stretches a vast 19 million acres and the only land that is going to be affected by the drilling is a mere 1.9 million acres, called the 1002 area. That is only 2% of the ANWR region. Of the 1.9 million acres only 2000 of those acres will actually be utilized for drilling purposes.

Conclusively, this should in no way endanger the animals in this area. Of course with every issue there are people who are for it and people that are against it, and there are some varying reasons individuals may be against drilling on the ANWR. Some reasons include: the environment and animals may be put in harms way by oil spills, the oil amounts in the area may not be as high as projected, and jobs diminish after oiling is through. All of these are valid points to not drill but there are some reasons why drilling can out way these potential downfalls. Covered earlier were the reasons why the environment and animals in this area will not be harmed. Other methods of keeping the animals safe are to move them to a parallel habitat for them to live and continue to survive.

Some of the state of the art technology has been developed over the years to aid in the finding of oil. Scientist have been working on ways of finding oil reserves and its quantity for the past two centuries, so the present technology is almost certain that the ANWR is rich in oil. With the many jobs that oil drilling will create; they may be lost as the oil diminishes in the ANWR. Although they may be lost, jobs will still be created boosting the economy.

Not all jobs last forever this will also give many people experience in their field of work Everyone has their own opinions of drilling on the ANWR, but it is truly up to the political leaders of this nation. Every voice will have an impact on the decisions on this issue whether it is for it or against it. Although, eventually America will need other sources of oil, so why not drill on the ANWR while the nation is prepared for the altercations that may occur from drilling and transporting oil. While America waits for its alternate energy savior the ANWR is the best means of postponing the depletion of oil.