Drilling for Oil: Little Savings

[An edited version of this letter appeared in the 6/29/08 edition of the Enquirer.]

To the editor:

Many people, Peter Bronson apparently included (“Memo to Congress,” June 24), seem to believe that if only the U.S. would tap into its undrilled oil reserves, gasoline prices would fall to pre-1990 levels. Conservation—who needs it? We’re Americans, after all. Big cars are our birthright!

Needless to say, nothing could be further from the truth.

For example, according to the June 19 New York Times, the U.S. Energy Information Agency estimates that about 16 billion barrels of oil lie beneath the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. If peak production could be reached within 10 years, and most of the oil is taken over 30 years, this would yield about 1 million barrels of oil a day (or approximately 1 percent of world production).

According to economist Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, this could be expected to reduce world oil prices by about 3 percent. Using today’s figures as a barometer, the price of a barrel of oil would drop from $135 to $131.

How would this affect gas prices? Baker calculates that—again, using today’s prices—a gallon of gas would plummet from $4.00/gallon to about $3.92/gallon.

I’m dismayed that so many Americans are willing to risk our environment—and prolong our short-sighted oil addiction—for such a meager reduction in gas prices.