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Thursday, August 14, 2008

Open ANWR Already!

Reason on-line.

Does anyone ever question where that "it's going to take ten years" mantra comes from? Are Brazilian oil companies that much better than their American counterparts?

The media constantly repeat the claim that it would take a decade to get the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) into oil production and about as long for offshore continental oil to start flowing. Most accounts promote the views of extreme environmentalists to make the issue appear so hopeless that we must instead "change our way of life" rather than tap into proven oil reserves. In July, CNN repeatedly reported that offshore drilling would take "seven to 10 years" to get into production. Yet Brazil's Petrobras expects its new finds in extraordinarily deep waters to already be producing 100,000 barrels per day in just two years. What is wrong with American oil companies that they would take so long?

In fact, the world oil shortage is political, not geological.


It turns out that almost all of that time is spent in doing paperwork and going to court.

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