3/10/2005
A Few Quick Notes
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There's some confusion regarding this story about the House version of the budget bill not including language on drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. This is not an indication that Republicans are less enthusiastic about doing this. It's more of a strategy issue. The language will be introduced in the Senate version, and likely in the process of negotiation, the language will be introduced into the final budget bill.
If you will, it's a head fake. -
I happen to see this post by someone who has some actual hands-on experience on this issue:
I'm not gonna argue about the impact on land or local wildlife. Having worked in a tundra research lab where we studied the impacts from Prudhoe Bay, I know the impacts are real, long-lasting, and damaging.
It's a very interesting and informative read. When I get around to making an ANWR links section of the sidebar, that's going to be the first entry. -
One of the tricky things in this discussion is conveying amounts in a way that people can relate to. For instance, take this factoid: at its peak the 1002 Area of ANWR could produce a little less than 1 million barrels of oil per day.
How do you relate to quantities like that?
The logical thing is to relate it to the amount of oil we consume per day through driving (about 9 million barrels). What I'm looking for is some iconic measure that is, as they say, user-friendly. Picture one of those hoakey bar charts with 3.5 widgets on it. Is that widget a barrel, a VW beetle, a polar bear?
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