Political Quotes

“I want to go into one more issue that we have not talked about here and that is ANWR. And that is the one a lot of people are cautious about talking about, but I am not. With the improvements in technology, it will allow us to develop with very little impact on the environment, and we can drill directionally from gravel pads on the surface, roads to drilling sites would be constructed only on ice and would melt in the spring when the snow melts. We are only going to drill on 2,000 acres of ANWR, when there is actually 19.6 million acres. We are only going to be drilling on 14 percent of Alaska's coastline. So we are not going to endanger all of Alaska, like some people think; and we will have a minimal impact. The interesting thing is that because of the tremendous reserves there, every well we drill there, and there are two different charts of production in the lower 48 and in Alaska. One chart says 45 wells would have to be drilled in the lower 48 to replace one well in Alaska; the other one would be 70. I personally think the 70 figure is the most accurate. The U.S. Geological Survey did a study. It came up to 16 billion barrels of oil were available in ANWR. That is enough to replace oil we import from Iraq for 58 years.”