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Is the trans Alaska pipeline system the solution to America's dependence on imported oil?
I was looking at this infographic today that makes the assertion that TAPS is the solution to America's dependence on oil imported from the Middle East. Do you agree with this assertion? Why or why not?
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3 Answers
The graphic is highly misleading, and this is the sort of thing that causes people to believe that energy independence is closer than it actually is. The graphic compares the capacity of the pipeline with the amount of oil that Libya exports. First off, this implies that we could actually produce enough oil to fill the pipeline to capacity. That is an unsupported assumption.
Second, we import very little oil from Libya, but our overall imports from the Middle East are at times much higher than Libya's total exports. Further, if you count all of OPEC (not all in the Middle East, but includes unfriendly countries like Venezuela) our imports are around 5 million barrels per day -- over twice the capacity of the pipeline.
This is not of course an argument against the pipeline, but it is important to have actual facts at our disposal when discussing issues such as this.
Of course not, but one source is never enough so we need many sources.
If you mean a gas pipleline to bring natural gas from the Arctic, no, this will do nothing to solve our oil supply problems. If you mean the pipeline that has been bringing oil from Prudhoe Bay and other smaller fields for 30 years, I suppose so but this is nothing new.
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