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Why We Shouldn't Drill in Alaska
For decades, Alaska has relied on oil to pay its bills. In recent years, up to 90 percent of state spending came from oil revenue. With crude prices at a 12-year low, the state faces at least a $3.5 billion deficit — or two-thirds of its budget ("Alaska Faces Budget Deficit As Crude Oil Prices Slide"). People want them to drill to pay the deficit, I think it’s useless because it only creates a problem.
Firstly, it kills any animal that lives there and creates a spot uninhabitable by animals, less space for life there. Second, why don’t the other states drive in oil, surely they can spare some, Texas, North Dakota, California all have the most oil in the Country (Walton). And drilling will get you so far until you have to drill again. There are infinite solutions for this problem and the worst thing that we could do is drilling in the wilderness. Alaska has been blocked from economic development for around forty years, but it’s also been taken for debate. I think that it is useful because it is the second biggest state with nineteen acres of land with oil, but that wouldn’t solve the problem. Americans have been seeing higher and higher oil prices and they think that the only solution is drilling , getting more. America is the number one country in the world that uses the most oil, in 2015 they used 773,200,000 cubic meters of oil, two times more than Russia, who is two times bigger. Do they really need that much ("Natural Gas Consumption / Countries Of The World")? America is number four in the world for oil preserves, they have 9,659,000 cubic meters of oil, yet they use the most oil in the world ("List Of Countries By Natural Gas Proven Reserves"). In short, they use two times more oil that Russia, yet they have only five times less. But, they also get oil from others, it is noted that 40% of oil in the U.S is from other countries, 58% of that 40% is Saudi Arabia ("Where Does America’S Oil Come From?"). They have a lot of oil stored, I don’t believe they have used 9,659,000 cubic meters and need more, not ONCE did the oil storage and production face a decline (Here et al.). If they drill too much oil, the economy will become unstable.
Overall the drilling would not be very beneficial because if they drill for too much they will damage the wilderness, if they drill too little they will have to drill again and, again, ruin the wilderness. They have to find a balance to drilling too much and too little and then it will be beneficial to drill.
Works Cited
Walton, Justin. "The US States That Produce The Most Oil." Investopedia. N.p., 2018. Web. 12 Mar. 2018.
"Natural Gas Consumption / Countries Of The World." World.bymap.org. N.p., 2018. Web. 12 Mar. 2018.
"List Of Countries By Natural Gas Proven Reserves." En.wikipedia.org. N.p., 2018. Web. 12 Mar. 2018.
"Where Does America’S Oil Come From?." World Economic Forum. N.p., 2018. Web. 12 Mar. 2018.
Here, Post et al. "Why Does The U.S. Still Need So Much Fracking Oil? - The Energy Collective." The Energy Collective. N.p., 2018. Web. 12 Mar. 2018.
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