With the 2000 Presidential election looming and both candidates in a near deadlock, Al Gore and George W. Bush have been forced to take stands on some very tough issues that affect the lives of everyday Americans. One of these decisions is what to do about the recent escalating crude oil prices. Many people believe that the candidates should promise to open up the strategic crude oil reserve until the prices stabilize. Others believe that the candidates should promise to negotiate with members of the OPEC bloc in an effort to stabilize prices. Many others believe that the candidates should look within the country, and begin oil drilling in untapped regions of the country such as Alaska. There are several benefits to opening additional wells in the Alaskan region, such as new jobs for American workers, cheaper crude oil, and less dependency upon an often unstable Middle Eastern region. These people believe that because there are already wells drilled in Alaskan regions with similar environmental conditions as the region in question, that there will be no harmful affects to begin drilling.

Obviously there are many dissenters of this opinion who bel

Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (http://arcticcircle.uconn.edu/ANWR/anwrhistoricalback.html).

"The lands protected by the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge include 19 million acres in the northeast corner of Alaska. The entire refuge lies north of the Arctic Circle and 1,300 miles south of the North Pole. The Coastal Plain area, [the area where the most crude oil is believed to be contained] compromising of 1.5 million acres on the northern edge of ANWR, is bordered on the north by the Beaufort Sea, on the east by the U.S. Canadian border, and on the west by the Canning River...At its widest points, the Coastal Plain is about 100 miles across and about 30 miles deep and covers an area slightly larger than the state of Delaware. Along the coastal area, the plain is an almost featureless expanse, barren and dotted with thousands of unconnected small ponds; the area to the south becomes gently rolling, treeless hills which merge into foothills and then into the northern edges of the Brooks Range...If ANWR were a state, it would be larger than 10 other states. " (Background-What...).

Reasons for the Opening of the Coastal Region

California State Senate Republican Caucus (http://republican.sen.ca.gov/opeds/36/oped164.asp).

In addition to threats by new leaders of OPEC, members of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge state that, "Nearly 58% of oil used in the United States is imported from foreign countries" (ANWR.org). This creates an unprecedented dependence on crude oil imports. In fact, according to the ANWR, we export over 10.5 million barrels of oil a day, including a staggering 1.4 million from Saudi Arabia alone. The ANWR argues that by opening up the coastal area of the region, it could produce 16 billion barrels of recoverable oil-the equivalent of 30 years of Saudi Arabia oil (Worried About Fuel Prices?). Thus the need and desire for internal oil production is evident.

There are obviously many advantages to opening the Coastal Region of the ANWR for exploration. Many jobs could be created by the exploration of the Coastal Region extending to direct oil derrick workers to additional workers in oil refineries. By opening the region, we would also decrease our dependence upon crude oil imports, which currently accounts for 58% of all of our oil consumption. The benefits would also be seen by consumers, who would enjoy decreases in gasoline prices in the relatively near future. There are also disadvantages and concerns to opening the region for oil exploration, primarily dealing with environmental issues. The concern stems from the belief that the piping leading to and from the oil derricks would eventually deteriorate and spill oil onto the permafrost, permanently destroying the permafrost. There are also concerns with the transportation of the

Some common words found in the essay are:
Coastal Region, Porcupine Caribou, Exxon Valdez, George Bush, Coastal Plain, Ray Hayes, Crude Oil, ANWR ANILCA, Coastal Alaskan, Middle Eastern, crude oil, coastal region, national wildlife refuge, arctic national wildlife, national wildlife, oil drilling, arctic national, wildlife refuge, coastal plain, gasoline prices, alaskan region, people believe, crude oil prices, dependence crude oil, coastal region anwr,
Approximate Word count = 1882
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)