The Curse of Woe

I mentioned before that ANWR would be developed. And to be honest, I'm hoping we start tomorrow.

We start tomorrow -- drill the shit out of it and extract all the gas and oil we can get our hands on. It will likely add another 780,000 barrels a day to the current world production of 84,000,000 barrels a day...a massive one percent. Excellent. A massive influx of new oil like this would do wonders. And we will drill sensitively. We won't harm the arctic ecosystem. And we will finally have no other direct domestic resource to exploit so we can remove all discussions about how environmental liberals such as myself are the curse of woe.

I fully expect us to suck ANWR dry before my son reaches my age. Well, not dry, but I'd bet than in 25 years' time it will have been started, developed, brought on stream, reached its peak, and started its decline by then.

Where else, oil?

As a kid I remember Exxon commercials on TV showing a scientist swirling around a half flask of oil and speaking of expansive future oil production from oil shales. Excellent. Now even with today's historically high oil prices, the total amount provided by shale is precisely dick. Not a drop. I wonder why.

I chatted with two neighbors on this just last night, as I capped off my first ever 5-day bike week (I've never before rode all five days in both directions, and I'll never do it again) My neighbors both know, know! that it's our refusal to drill at home that's causing all this fuss. She drives a 4-runner to Rancho Cordova daily, and he a full-sized truck to Lodi to fly a helicopter. No. Their two-car, two-motorcycle commuter based lifestyles have absolutely nothing to do with it. They both said, almost in chorus, that our refusal to drill is at fault. All I can do is egg them on about how much money they must be spending to service their lifestyles. And I enjoy doing it.

In this screwed up nation, it will never be about climate change, local air quality, walkable communities or depleting salmon fisheries. Only that it costs $79 to gas up the Gremlin.