GIP and stuff

[kellinator]

Look at this awesome icon relevantpink made for me! She picked "shipwrecks" from my interest list and gave me this great multi-purpose icon.

I'm still hunting for my current political icon. I've seen a couple of good candidates over at liberal_icons. I hate to give up the Kerry icon, but I'm reaching the point where I sit there debating over which icon to delete every time I get a new one, and that's just sad. But, you know, you don't want to get rid of the nice ones people made for you... I did delete a Munch icon a while back. See? It has happened.

Oh, forgive me while I indulge in a moment of "told you so":

Drilling approved for Alaska oil reserve

I'm sorry. I'd like to be writing politically insightful things, but right now I'm still trying to figure out what the hell I can do to make a difference.

In the meantime, I'll probably just write fluff.

Comments

[dwivian]

I don't see that increasing slant drilling in the Prudoe Bay (did I even spell that right?) area would reduce unemployment in Fairbanks or Anchorage. Maybe I'm just misunderstanding, but that looks like one HELL of a commute.

I see the minuses, too -- they are claiming about 10 million barrels, INCLUDING SHALE. WTF?!!? Like BP will mine the shale before moving to land they already own where it's much warmer to do that... So, there isn't a lot of oil to be had, as far as I can tell. But, remove it and some of the shale-oil will leach back down, and maybe we'll get 6-7 million barrels. Even so, that's not a lot, considering our daily demand is 20 million.

And, I'd love to hear more from you on how the industry impacts Alaska, as one day the oil will start being more trouble than it's worth. What do you see happening then?

[alfabettezoupe.livejournal.com]

they do it in shifts. people go up to the slant for several weeks to several months and work for the most part nonstop. then they're home for several weeks and then the cycle starts again :)

that's the other part that really makes no sense. sure it's easier to get at, but the reserve there is small. there's not really enough oil to make it all that worthwhile. however the oil in other areas that is harder to get at is hugely plentiful.

there's enough oil in alaska that we could stop dependency on other countries. the problem is that it's not as neat and clean as the oil from the middle east. therefore it's going to take a ton of refinining to make it useable, but it is there.

i would love to see more companies use parts of alaska for drilling (not the anwr necessarily). people tend to forget that if you chopped the state into 4 equal pieces, the 5th largest state would be texas. it's huge and for the most part uninhabited.

[dwivian]

Cool discussion! I'm going to have to defer to your superior experience on this one.