Loren Faeth wrote:
If you want lower fuel prices and are a resident of the US, write or call your senators and representatives and demand relaxation of regulations against drilling and refining. In particular, ask them to grow a spine and allow drilling in the arctic tundra.
Hmm. Would that reduce prices at the pump, or just result in higher oil company profits? I have my doubts that increased supply will help much unless we either get more competition in the industry or get more regulation.
Other questions are whether the volume of oil pumped from ANWR would be enough of a percentage of global production to drop the price noticably, and whether the production increase would be matched by a cut by OPEC, making the overall supply the same and keeping the price propped up.
I tend to think drilling in ANWR (and lots of more sensitive places) is inevitable as other established oil fields run dry in the future, but I DON'T think drilling there will ever result in a glut of oil that will drop the price of fuel significantly.
