Why are getting oil from Alaska and being careful with the environment mutually exclusive?

There is drilling in the arctic in Canada being done in very environmentally friendly ways. If the Canadians can do it so can we in Alaska. As for offshore when hurricane Katrina shut down oil rigs in the gulf of Mexico there were no oil spills. If we got through that without an environmental disaster from oil drilling we can do the same in other locations.

We will always need oil in our lifetimes! Even with solar energy and wind power there are times when the wind doesn't blow and the sun doesn't shine and batteries are inadequate to supply a city!

Yes, we can drill for oil in Alaska and drill off our coast lines without destroying the environment! Way back around 30 years ago the same warnings were given about drilling for oil in Prudhoe Bay and the danger the oil pipeline would cause - never happened! Without that Prudhoe Bay oil being on the market we would be paying more for our gasoline and heating oil, much more than that $4.00 per gallon that recently woke people up!

By the way, because of the oil pipeline there are more little animals in that area, it seems that the vibration or warmth from that flowing oil causes the animals to be more productive! Another benefit of that oil line is that when a lightning strike sets the forest on fire the service road, used to maintain the pipelines, is also used by fire departments to put out those fires and saving thousands and thousands of little animals! Every now and then there is routine maintenance needed on the pipeline or because hunters pepper the pipes with bullet holes. The greatest danger has been from militant environmentalists who try to sabotage the lines to "show the world" how bad an oil leak would be! Even that didn't work and we have been getting oil from Prudhoe Bay for 30 years!

Prudhoe Bay oil is "old technology!" Now we can drill for oil with a smaller footprint and less interference with the local area.

There will be a day when the oil producing nations will say to America - no more oil for you! Since America has the largest supply of shale and coal in the world (it can be converted to a fluid fuel) but you don't use it - you ain't getting any more oil from the other countries in the world! Since your politicians in Washington DC are so stupid that they prevent your citizens from drilling in Alaska - you won't get any more foreign oil!

It could happen! Drilling for oil in Alaska will be cheaper now than 10 years from now! How about them nuclear power plants - congress is really putting them on the fast track - yeah sure! How about new modern oil refineries - don't see them on the horizon either!

Yes, we can drill for oil without destroying the environment! We will always need oil in our lifetimes!

They're not. The media is on their latest kick. Remember in the 1970's the US media was all about a New Ice Age? Please please please look that up- same degree of "we're all going to die" and who is to blame? WE MUST WARM THE EARTH! they cried.

Either everyone is deaf, ignorant, or has a really short memory.

Al Gore (whose family bought, for CASH, the entire United States Strategic Wartime Oil Reserves) said that the government should "artificially raise the price of gas to $5.00 per gallon." Do you have any good explanation for why gas all of a sudden jumped in price like it did? Does ANYONE?

Al Gore is making literally millions of dollars flying in a jet all the frak over the world promoting Global Warming (which has been disproved dozens of times) using hundreds of times more fossil fuels than anyone else you'll ever hear of and creating a MONSTROUS carbon footprint, and everywhere he goes, some idiot organization pays him tens of thousands of dollars to "speak." He champions global flooding as a result of the ice caps melting, yet he just bought a million-dollar condo AT SEA LEVEL!

Are we all completely blind? Are we stupid?

The way this dovetails with ANWAR is that historically, the Democrat party has opposed anything that would increase the US oil supply, drop the price of gas, or allow the US to become more energy-independent. They scream, loudly, their same old misinformation whenever a really good idea comes up (and the media repeats it even louder). ANWAR is a huge area, but the part of it where drilling was proposed is small, and is a desolate, lifeless wasteland. The Democrats show us pictures of lush green hills and pretty waterfalls that are hundreds or miles away from where they want to drill and pass it off as if the oil companies are going to go in there and destroy it all.

There is another large drilling site ALREADY THERE, just right up the coastline to the northwest! Again, anything they can do to make the problem worse, they do. And then they crow about whose fault it is: whichever Republican is in office. During Clinton's administration, he waved off proposals about new drilling and new refineries. Why? He said, "those things won't affect us for ten years- I'm worried about NOW." And then he did squat. Well WOW- here it is ten years later, and those things would have helped.

We should all care about the future- we're all going to spend the rest of our lives there.

We have been drilling and pumping oil up here in Alaska since 1977. The wildlife are just fine with the pipeline. We simply do not have enough oil to satisfy the needs and wants of the USA. Gas today in Palmer, AK was $4.45 and diesel was $5.45.

alaskan sand is destrucive, but ofshoring in fact does minimal damage, the only time when it get's bad is when there is a spil. however we should be drilling the colorado shale. it's so stupid how idiots make it impossible for us to drill, while we currently have more oil than saudia arabia. the idiot above doesn't realize that oil companies only get a measly 8% profit. we need oil, and it's about supply and demand. and the fact is the supply (being utilized) has dropped, while the demand has raised.

They already drill oil in Alaska. Are you specifically talking about ANWR? There is only enough oil there to last 4-6 months and would take years of drilling to get to it...why bother...it would change nothing but would be extremely destructive to the environment.

bit off subject but you guys in America have got it good quick bit of working out tells me that we are paying about $10.50 a gallon for petrol(gas). think yourselves lucky at only $4 lol

We can drill, and Alaska won't feel a thing. It's that simple.

It should'nt even be a subject. We do NOT need the oil in Alsaka ! Just as oil does'nt really need to be $4+ a gallon now. It's all about money and power.