Is there enough oil beneath the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) to help secure America’s energy future ? President Bush certainly thinks so. He has argued that tapping ANWR’s oil would help ease California’s electricity crisis and provide a major boost to the country’s energy independence. But no one knows for sure how much crude oil lies buried beneath the frozen earth. With the last government survey, conducted in 1998, projecting output anywhere from 3 billion to 16 billion barrels.
The oil industry goes with the high end of the range, which could equal as much as 10% of U.S. consumption for as long as six years. By pumping more than 1 million barrels a day from the reserve for the next two three decades, lobbyists claim, the nation could cut back on imports equivalent to all shipments to the U.S. from Saudi Arabia. Sounds good. An oil boom would also mean a multibilliondollar windfall in tax revenues, royalties and leasing fees for Alaska and the Federal Government. Best of all, advocates of drilling say, damage to the environment would be insignificant. “We’ve never had a document case of oil rig chasing deer out onto the pack ice.” says Alaska State Representative Scott Ogan.
Not so far, say environmentalists. Sticking to the low end of government estimates, the National Resources Defense Council says there may be no more than 3.2 billion barrels of economically recoverable oil in the coastal plain of ANWR, a drop in the bucket that would do virtually nothing to ease America’s energy problems.
在北極國家野生動物保護區(qū)(ANWR)的土地下是否有足夠的石油來確保美國未來的能源安全？布什總統(tǒng)認為肯定有。
他聲稱北極國家野生動物保護區(qū)(ANWR)的石油將有助于緩解加州的電力危機并能減少美國對國外石油的依賴。但幾乎沒人知道在這塊冰封的土地下究竟有多少原油。據(jù)1998年政府所做的最新查勘，那里有30億到160億桶原油儲量。
石油業(yè)也隨聲附和政府報告的樂觀看法，他們認為這些石油可以供給美國六年中所需石油總量的10%。游說者們宣稱，如果每天在保護區(qū)內開采一百萬桶原油，美國就可減少從沙特阿拉伯進口同樣數(shù)量的石油。聽起來還不錯吧！石油業(yè)的突然繁榮意味著數(shù)十億美元稅收和開采費用，同時阿拉斯加和聯(lián)邦政府也可得到數(shù)額龐大的租金。鉆井取油的倡議者認為，鉆探并不會給當?shù)厣鷳B(tài)環(huán)境造成嚴重的影響。來自阿拉斯加州的眾議員斯科特·奧岡就說：“我們從未聽說輸油管能將馴鹿逐出其棲息地?！?BR>
環(huán)保主義者卻認為，事實并非如此。他們對政府的評估報告持不同意見。國家能源安全委員會認為，在國家野生動物保護區(qū)(ANWR)海岸邊的平原上最多只有32億桶經(jīng)濟上可開發(fā)的原油。這根本無法緩解美國所面臨的能源問題。
The oil industry goes with the high end of the range, which could equal as much as 10% of U.S. consumption for as long as six years. By pumping more than 1 million barrels a day from the reserve for the next two three decades, lobbyists claim, the nation could cut back on imports equivalent to all shipments to the U.S. from Saudi Arabia. Sounds good. An oil boom would also mean a multibilliondollar windfall in tax revenues, royalties and leasing fees for Alaska and the Federal Government. Best of all, advocates of drilling say, damage to the environment would be insignificant. “We’ve never had a document case of oil rig chasing deer out onto the pack ice.” says Alaska State Representative Scott Ogan.
Not so far, say environmentalists. Sticking to the low end of government estimates, the National Resources Defense Council says there may be no more than 3.2 billion barrels of economically recoverable oil in the coastal plain of ANWR, a drop in the bucket that would do virtually nothing to ease America’s energy problems.
在北極國家野生動物保護區(qū)(ANWR)的土地下是否有足夠的石油來確保美國未來的能源安全？布什總統(tǒng)認為肯定有。
他聲稱北極國家野生動物保護區(qū)(ANWR)的石油將有助于緩解加州的電力危機并能減少美國對國外石油的依賴。但幾乎沒人知道在這塊冰封的土地下究竟有多少原油。據(jù)1998年政府所做的最新查勘，那里有30億到160億桶原油儲量。
石油業(yè)也隨聲附和政府報告的樂觀看法，他們認為這些石油可以供給美國六年中所需石油總量的10%。游說者們宣稱，如果每天在保護區(qū)內開采一百萬桶原油，美國就可減少從沙特阿拉伯進口同樣數(shù)量的石油。聽起來還不錯吧！石油業(yè)的突然繁榮意味著數(shù)十億美元稅收和開采費用，同時阿拉斯加和聯(lián)邦政府也可得到數(shù)額龐大的租金。鉆井取油的倡議者認為，鉆探并不會給當?shù)厣鷳B(tài)環(huán)境造成嚴重的影響。來自阿拉斯加州的眾議員斯科特·奧岡就說：“我們從未聽說輸油管能將馴鹿逐出其棲息地?！?BR>
環(huán)保主義者卻認為，事實并非如此。他們對政府的評估報告持不同意見。國家能源安全委員會認為，在國家野生動物保護區(qū)(ANWR)海岸邊的平原上最多只有32億桶經(jīng)濟上可開發(fā)的原油。這根本無法緩解美國所面臨的能源問題。