The fastest solution to our oil crisis is drill Alaska

I understand your argument. You are saying that drilling Alaska is the fastest way to solve our dependence on foreign oil. I am against that proposition. I suggest that it isn't "the fastest way to solve our dependence on foreign oil", because it can't "solve our dependence on foreign oil". We are still dependent on foreign oil, with or without drilling ANWR! It's a drop in the pan. We couldn't drill it fast enough to sustain our entire demand for oil, and even if we could, it's about a year worth of oil. The 385 days is an estimate (not a guess). There are people who do this as their job. They estimate how much oil can be removed from the grounds in different places. They say that there is about 7.7 billion barrels of oil. This is the actual and proper estimate as to how much oil is probably there. Dividing that by the amount we currently use, gives us that duration (without growth). We probably would use more if it were cheaper, so the estimate is probably on the high side. We probably would continue to increase in our demand, so the estimate is probably on the high side. It would be impossible to pump the oil prior to January 1st 2009. Nor is that enough time to establish the infrastructure needed. Further, your argument isn't that we should drill Alaska and then convert to hydrogen, that's not even part of a solution. You are in favor of drilling ANWR as a "solution". By the way, with a name like reagan_views you'd have the government tell a lot of people what to do. Your argument seems to have become, Let's Drill ANWR. Then convert to Ethanol. Then convert to Hydrogen. That's a bit far from the initial point, and oddly doesn't work at all. Why are you forcing car manufacturers to produce extreme flex-fuel vehicles and everybody to buy them... then to produce hydrogen vehicles and everybody to buy them too... You'd have people replace their cars twice for technology that simply doesn't work? There are a number of problems with both hydrogen and E85. Ethanol (from corn) takes more energy to produce than it delivers. Even though the energy ultimately comes from the sun to grow the corn, it just takes too much to actual manufacture that it can't break even (this might be overcome with some major advances). Further, most of our food products are corn derived, switching to corn based would make our food prices skyrocket. The math suggests we'd need the entire US covered with corn to power our cars. Hydrogen is hard to store. Hydrogen is hard to move. Hydrogen would require an entirely replaced infrastructure to run. Hydrogen is produced through the electrolysis of water and is, in effect, just a battery for the real energy source: coal. Coal powers the power grid, then powers electrolysis, then powers the car if burnt directly or using a fuel cell. You have, in a debate about "solutions" to our oil crisis provided a non-solution of Drill ANWR. Then you back this up by suggesting other things which have *some* actual potential. On the topic, you lose. On these odd secondary arguments, you lose. I'm not even quite sure what you are proposing. The topic however is clear. The objection is just as clear: You do not solve an oil crisis with more oil... especially a tiny amount of additional oil (compare the ANWR figure with the figures given in the Table of Round 1). My table is accurate regardless of your your silly objection that they sell us oil. Of course they do! They have a lot of it, and ANWR has a small amount. We don't need to sell our oil to foreign countries, because we don't have any (Texas, Alaska, and California do produce but not enough to merit much attention). We're unable to avoid importing foreign oil. We haven't been able to sustain ourselves since the 1970s. Further, even drilling ANWR, we'd still have dependence on foreign oil. Also, most of our foreign oil is Canadian. You don't understand the problem if you think that more holes = more oil (forever). It's a finite resource. The problem we are facing now is that there's less left to discover than we need to discover. The places we discover oil today are much harder to access, and much more expensive. We did find a good amount of oil in the Gulf a while back, however that oil was way out in the middle and very deep. That oil is hard to access and harder to find. It use to bubble up from the ground all over the place. Believe me, if there's oil around, the oil companies are looking for it. However, we can't get it out of the ground and usable fast enough to meet demand. There is a little less oil in the ground today than we have ever produced and or used (we're a couple years after the peak, 50% at peak). There's plenty of oil... there's just not enough. That's the core issue with the oil crisis. We use a lot of oil. We pump a lot of oil. We find a lot of oil. We just don't find and pump the oil faster than we can manage to use it. Adding ANWR to the equation doesn't solve anything! I'm sorry for your confusion. You think that drilling ANWR is a good idea for some bizarre reason. You have an extremely confused view of the problem. You have a naive view of the potential solutions. You blame "tree hugging liberals" for your confused view of the world. Stopping oil companies from destroying ANWR is actually worth it. ANWR is priceless, doesn't actually have that much oil, and isn't a solution! "If it weren't for these damned tree-hugging liberals we would be facing this oil crisis a year later than we're facing it now... and have destroyed a natural treasure." -- Damn those tree-hugging liberals! ANWR is a national treasure, it's honestly priceless and one of the last untouched bits of nature we have left. You want to sacrifice it for what boils down to about a year of no real solution? You add on to this idea, grasping for straws. Maybe E85 (which takes more energy than it produces) or Hydrogen (which doesn't produce any energy and there's no infrastructure or cars for) can save us! If you want to debate those topics, feel free to challenge me on them... I'd happily wipe the floor with you. The fastest solution to our oil crisis is not to drill Alaska. Drilling Alaska isn't a solution to anything. The solution to our dependence on oil is not more oil. "I'm trying to quit Heroin." -- "Gee, are you taking something for that?" "Yes, Heroin." I'm not confused, but apparently you are.