So far, over a million morons have signed a Hannity/Limbaugh/Gingrich-supported petition to open up ANWR and the outer continental shelf to oil drilling.  Drill Here.  Drill Now.  Pay Less.  FUCK YOU.  

Let's look at the numbers (I've done a simple Net Present Value calculation here on the back of a napkin so annual rises in global oil demand, devaluation of the dollar and recession/depression demand destruction are not figured in here...). 

Off Shore

According to The Decider's recent speech, there are 18 billion barrels of oil off our continental shelf (never mind that the United States Geological Survey identified only 7.6 billion barrels).  World oil consumption today is around 86 million barrels of oil per day.  So if we pulled out every drop of Bush's 18 billion off shore barrels (remember not all oil in the ground is ultimately recoverable) that would account for less than a year-- 209 days-- of global oil supply, or only 88 days if you believe the USGS more than you believe Bush.  Hum. 

ANWR (Don't Expect too Much)

The Energy Information Association (EIA) says there is likely only 2.6 billion recoverable barrels of oil in the wildlife refuge and the first drop of that oil won't hit the US until 2018 if we start drilling today.  That's a enough oil over the life of the field to provide ONE MONTH of global oil supply.  In twenty years' time, this could lower the price of a barrel of oil by 1%.  Wow.  

So all of these idiots signing the petition and all of the ignorant republiCONS jumping on the 'drill now' band wagon think that 8 months worth of oil is going to solve the problem?  Fuck me. 

IMHO, this is Big Oil-backed promotion designed to grab new contracts to boost their balance sheets in preparation for consolidations on the downslope of the Peak... Here's the proof:

From The Truth About America’s Energy: Big Oil Stockpiles Supplies and Pockets Profits

-On the Outer Continental Shelf, 82% of federal natural gas and 79% of federal oil is located in areas that are currently open for leasing.

-Onshore, 72% of oil and 84% of natural gas resources are either fully accessible under standard lease stipulations designed to protect lands and wildlife, or will be accessible pending the completion of land-use planning or environmental reviews.

-Between 1999 and 2007, drilling permits for oil and gas development on public lands increased more than 361%.

-Since 2004, the Bureau of Land Management has issued 28,776 permits to drill on public land; in that same time, only 18,954 wells were actually drilled.

-Oil and gas companies have stockpiled nearly 10,000 extra permits to drill that they are not using to increase domestic production.

-Onshore, of the 47.5 million acres of federal lands leased by oil and gas companies, only about 13 million acres are actually producing oil and gas.

-Offshore, only 10.5 million of the 44 million leased acres are currently producing oil or gas.

-Combined, oil and gas companies hold leases to nearly 68 million acres of federal land that are not producing oil and gas.

-The 68 million acres of leased, inactive federal land could produce an additional 4.8 million barrels of oil and 44.7 billion cubic feet of natural gas each day.

-That would nearly double total U.S. oil production, and increase natural gas production by 75%.

-4.8 million barrels of oil equals more than six times the estimated peak production from the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

-Development of and production from the 68 million acres currently under lease but not in production would cut US imports of oil by one-third.