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Public Commentary Dear Editor: The U.S. imports over 10 million barrels of crude oil per day. ANWR's one million barrels per day would be only 10 percent of our daily imported oil and only about five percent of our total oil consumption. The entire 10 billion barrels in ANWR could only replace oil imports for about three years. The pitifully small increase in oil supply resulting from ANWR would likely have little or no effect on the price of crude oil. Frank Stalzer (letters, May 28, Congressional candidate, 2nd District) said a solution is to 'drill our way out of the problem'. This will certainly not work in the short term, as it will take years before oil could flow from ANWR. In the long term, there is so little oil in ANWR that it is sure to have only a minimal effect on prices, if any. The price of gasoline and diesel is not only a function of the price of crude oil but is also a function of refining capacity and demand for these fuels. A shortage of refining capacity and an increase in worldwide demand for gasoline and diesel are the factors causing prices to rise. Another of Mr. Stalzer's solutions is to suspend the purchase of oil for Strategic Petroleum Reserve. This has already been done by Congress, which overwhelmingly approved such a bill on May 13th. No effect on prices as a result of this bill is evident. By the way, the SPR's capacity of 689 million barrels is only a two month supply of imported oil. Notably missing from Mr. Stalzer's list of suggestions is a proposal to reduce the amount of oil we use. By only addressing the supply side of the problem and not addressing the demand side of the problem, Mr. Stalzer may be endearing himself to his supply-side political backers but he is not helping to solve our country's energy needs or the world's global warming crisis. Both high oil prices and excess CO2 emissions, which give rise to global warming, would be addressed by a concerted effort to reduce oil consumption. The kind of leadership required from our politicians is that they be at the forefront of energy conservation and greenhouse gas reduction, not the kind that wants to "drill our way out of the problem." Michael Wiplich Babylon P.S. The above statistics have been obtained from EIA (Energy Information Administration) at http://www.eia.doe.gov/basics/quickoil.html
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