"Drill!"

"Don't drill!"

"You're going to hurt the animals!"

"But we need more oil!"

Yak, yak, yak, yak, yak-yak-yak, yak-yak, yak.

The argument between pro-drillers and anti-drillers is shrill, fairly partisan, and seemingly non-ending.

In today's world, today's oil prices are murdering our pocketbooks, by raising gas, food, and home heating prices, on top of other things. Doctor's appointment bills will go up. College costs have gone up as a result of the energy crisis (dorms and food? you betcha!), and the guy delivering pizza to your door will not only be carrying a more expensive pie, but might also be expecting a fatter tip. He might even need it.

WHAT ARE THEY TALKING ABOUT?

The environmentalist lobby tells us that drilling for oil is going to harm the environment by the release of toxic fumes in the air from the equipment extracting the resources from the earth. They say that it will harm fish and other sealife in offshore drilling, and caribou, bears, and other land-borne creatures in Alaska . Some environmentalists go so far as to estimate that the drilling of these sites will not improve life for Americans; that it will take too long to build the rigs, hire the people, put drills in the ground, take the oil out, send it for refining, barrel it and put it on the market.

The pro-drilling lobby has always sad that more oil supply will increase our supply of oil, and, by the laws of economics, lower the price. They've said that drilling oil gives people more jobs--and not just normal jobs, but well-paying jobs for people wanting to work the rigs--especially here in Alaska . They also say that we can assist in taking our dependence off of foreign oil.

What's to believe?! Who's right, and who's wrong? If, at first glance, you see valid points on BOTH sides and have a hard time deciding, chances are you're right on track. Both arguments, like almost any, have good things to say on both ends, and sometimes it's tough to determine where you're standing.

DANI, YOU’RE AN ALASKAN. WHAT DO YOU THINK?

As an Alaskan--here's what I think about this issue.

With gas peaking out around $4.70+ in southern California, $4.34 here in Fairbanks today (it cost me $70 to fill my tank this week!), and staggeringly high prices in other communities across the country, as well... with Alaska needing jobs, and the economic slump in the entire country calling for good jobs for many, many others... with our dependence on foreign oil from the Middle East costing us so much money... and lots of other reasons... I am inclined to be pro-drilling. I like a self-sufficient country where we excavate and process on our own resources on our own soil. We don't need to be going to other countries when we have a lot of our resources waiting to be homegrown.

But, a concern of mine is that, if we get as much oil as we think we're going to get, we're going to rely on this instead of working on developing alternative energy sources. Oil isn’t going to last forever, and we honestly do not know how long it will take to get oil flowing from ANWR. We have estimates of the oil that’s underneath the ground—about 11 billion barrels. We could be pumping out over a million barrels of oil a day! But, the only way you know how much of anything is in something is if you dig into it. There are no definites, so we really don’t even know how much profit will yield from the venture.

Let’s look at our old pipeline, the Trans-Alaska Pipeline, that runs all the way from northern Prudhoe Bay to southern Valdez . It runs almost 800 miles from the Arctic Ocean to the Gulf of Alaska . President Richard Nixon signed the Trans-Alaska Pipeline Authorization Act into law in November 1973. Construction began in March 1974 and ended in May of 1977, to the tune of $8 billion dollars (in 70’s talk; inflation might make the cost skyrocket in today’s world!).

Today, as the state is in the process of negotiating the building of a natural gas pipeline, officials estimate the building process to last through the better part of a decade. Then again, a natural gas pipe needs to be extra-thick, so the pressurized gas traveling inside doesn’t cause the whole damn thing to explode if there’s an earthquake (we’re prone to those, I tell you what!) or other change in conditions. It might be one of the hugest undertakings to ever be attempted, both financially and in terms of manpower.

But, an oil pipeline is not the same as a gas pipeline, so it will not ten years to build a pipeline from ANWR to another destination. So, depending on how the federal government wants to build it, the past shows us that, optimally, it could take five years to build a pipeline.

Maybe we should have gotten started years and years ago.

However, my opinions don't have to be yours. I’m not trying to convince you to come to my side. You should feel how you want to on this topic.

WHAT DO THE CANDIDATES THINK?

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama opposes drilling for oil in parts of the Arctic National Wildlife

Reserve, and also opposes drilling for oil in offshore rigs.  Republican presidential candidate John McCain is opposed to drilling in ANWR, and has recently started to teeter toward favoring drilling offshore.

Obama emphasizes long-term thinking in the investing in and research of alternative energy sources.

I applaud him, and agree--but I think he's missing out on the key point that we need some energy relief NOW.

But Obama cites long-term thinking AND the environment in his opposition to drilling in ANWR; however, McCain cites mainly the environment in his opposition to ANWR.

That makes me crazy. The space that experts say is rich in oil in ANWR is only a sliver of the huge national wildlife refuge; environmentalists would have you believe that we want to drill the entire northeast corner of Alaska . Not true; it's such a tiny piece of land. We've also proven that we Alaskan workers can keep our environment safe in the transportation of oil. The caribou population has actually kept afloat in areas around our pipeline, as a safe zone from natural predators like wolves. We're good workers--and I remind you that it was British Petroleum policy that contributed to a huge spill in the summer of 2006.

So, the environment? Is that all, McCain? No wonder you received such a small percentage of Alaska votes on the Super Tuesday primary.

AD SUMMUM…

While energy is such a hard topic nowadays, and talked-about anywhere you go, a good, civically-minded young person such as yourself who may have never been to Alaska or spent much time on the topic of energy may not know where to go or what to do. Weigh the arguments, and trust your own instincts. Do me that favor.