Energy, Society, and Climate Change :: Preservation Wildlife Essays

Energy, Society, and Climate ChangeThe topic of my presentation was the proposal to open the Arctic National Wildlife safety to c everywhere drilling. This controversial proposal has get into into the forefront of U.S. energy policy in the past year with the chaparral administration advocating its approval to open the previously undisturbed habitat of the Refuge to inunct exploration. In my presentation, I gave a basic overview of U.S. crude oil usage, a brief history of drilling on the North Slope, the formation of ANWR, the electromotive force pros and cons of drilling in the Refuge, and concluded by citing early(a) means of oil management that would by far offset any temporary gains by ANWR drilling.I began my presentation by giving some statistics on the yearly consumption rate of oil in the clear in States. In 2001, the United States consumed over 19 billion positions of oil per day, which comes out to 7 billion barrels of oil one-yearly. (http//www.eia.doe.gov/e meu/ipsr/t24.txt) This 7 billion barrel annual consumption rate makes up over 25% of the yearly human beings consumption rate of 24 billion barrels. The United States produces domestically most half of the oil it consumes, with the other half being trade, with half of the imports orgasm from OPEC countries. Stated simply, 25% of the oil the United States consumes annually is imported from OPEC countries, the other 25% of oil imported comes from non-OPEC countries such(prenominal) as Canada, with the United States utilise its own reserves for the remaining 50% of consumption.For an example of the cost of having such a reliance on imported oil, in midsummer 2001, with oil prices at $24 per barrel, the U.S. was spending $210 million per day on imported oil, which would add to nearly $80 billion per year if the price per barrel consistently stayed at $24. This reliance on foreign oil constitutes over 1/3 the annual U.S. trade deficit. (Energy and Society, Schobert, Pgs 505-506 ) Besides having relatively a couple of(prenominal) oil handle comp ared to other nations, other problems hinder the ability of the U.S. to not rely on imported oil. The U.S. has exploited its oil reserves long-dated than any other nation, resulting in the cost of producing a barrel of oil in the existing U.S. reserves being more than anywhere else. This ontogeny of U.S. reserves will cause domestic oil production to fall dramatically over the next decade as existing fields are exhausted and relatively few new reserves are discovered.