Is there enough oil beneath the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) to help secure America’’s energy future
President Bush (36)________thinks so. He has argued that tapping ANWR’’s oil would help ease California’’s electricity (37)________and provide a major boost to the country’’s energy (38)________. But no one knows for sure how much crude oil lies buried beneath the (39)________earth with the last government survey, (40)________in 1998, projecting output anywhere from 3 billion to 16 billion barrels.
The oil industry goes with the high end of the range, which could equal as much as 10% of US (41)________for as long as six years. By pumping more than one million barrels a day from the (42)________for the next two or three decades, lobbyists claim, the nation could cut back on imports (43)________to all shipments to the US from Saudi Arabia. It sounds good. (44)________________.
Not so far, say environmentalists. Sticking to the low end of government estimates, the National Resources Defense Council says there may be no more than 3.2 billion barrels of economically recoverable oil in the coastal plain of ANWR, a drop in the bucket that would do virtually nothing to ease America’’s energy problems. (45)________________ because drilling could only begin after much bargaining over leases, environmental permits and regulatory review. As for ANWR’’s impact on the California power crisis, (46)________________.