by Sarah Sanny

Created on: August 06, 2008

I do not think we should drill for oil in Alaska. I do not see how it will really help us break our dependence on oil in the long run. We drill in Alaska, get a little bit of oil, and we are still going to be dependent on oil in the end.

It would take several years just to build the rig out there, especially if there are any kinds of spills or accidents in the process. Then you have to figure in the fact that there are only approximately 10 billion barrels worth of oil out there, which most experts seem to agree would only last the U.S. between 6 months and one year. So, we spend several years and most likely several billions of dollars, just for up to a year of oil? That seems fairly unbalanced and a highly ineffective use of the taxpayers' money.

What of the environmental effects of the drilling in Alaska? We would be displacing thousands of native species from their homes and oil spills would contaminate the water sources which would affect the fish supplies (which are a common source of food for Alaskans and a main export to other states as well).

So, we drill in Alaska, get our year supply of oil after several years of waiting, and then what? We are right back to square one: trying to find an end to the energy crisis, which will more than likely have gotten worse by that point. We will have damaged the planet further, ruined a natural habitat again and all for our own personal greed and addiction to oil.

Oil prices are dropping fairly quickly now. What was once $140 a barrel is now closer to $90 a barrel. This is happening without us drilling for oil in Alaska! Why, then, should we needlessly waste money and endanger helpless, innocent animals all for our own selfish goals. We need to act now to find more reliable sources of energy that are cleaner, more efficient, and are more cost effective. Wind energy is an obvious source that is all of these. Natural gas is also an option to look at, as is solar energy. I know solar energy is not exactly cheap initially, but in the long run it would likely save trillions of dollars in the long run.

All of these would be much more attainable than oil, are quite renewable unlike oil and would be accessible to everyone, which would mean that no one country could truly monopolize it like the Middle East has done in the oil industry (even though a majority of our oil is actually from our own country). They would be more fairly priced because they would be widely available and more reliable than oil. We could store it up easier than oil which would lead us to an energy surplus rather than an energy crisis.

This is why I believe drilling in Alaska would be an unwise idea and why we should turn our attention to other sources of energy sooner rather than later.

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