6 month ANWR myth

salon.com continues (fighting the last war with) its opposition to ANWR drilling, Apprehension in Alaska. (salon's uk partner the guardian sports the more foreboding title Oil clouds gather over Alaskan eden)

while locals very well may be split, i take issue with the repeated claim that ANWR would yield only 6 months of oil:

The oil is thought to be of low quality, and the average estimate is that there is only enough down there to keep the United States going for six months. [emphasis added]

the sierra club naturally opposes anwr drilling. my favorite lines:

The cost of drilling in the Arctic Refuge is so high, in fact, that the U.S. Geological Service (USGS) says if the price of oil fell to $16 a barrel, there would actually be NO economically recoverable oil in the coastal plain.

$16 a barrel? crude oil has been consistently above that level for the past 25 years, let alone today's $50+ handle. the sierra club continues with its own version of 6 months

Each day, the United States consumes about 19.5 million barrels of oil, an annual total of about 7 billion barrels each year. Given this rate of consumption, if Arctic oil was our nation's only source, it would fuel America's demand for less than 6 months. [emphasis added]

that's a big "if"...that means no other source of oil in the world...not canada, not mexico, not even gabon

this myth is effectively de-bunked based on the USGS assessment and analysis.

¶ - nitish @ 5:27 PM