Arctic Oil Gets an Administration Gusher

Interior Secretary Gale Norton, campaigning to win oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, had the urgency of a saleswoman falling short of her monthly quota.

“ANWR would supply every drop of petroleum for Florida for 29 years,” she told a friendly audience at the Heritage Foundation yesterday, “New York for 34 years, Illinois for 43 years, California for 16 years or New Hampshire for 315 years.”
So how many years would ANWR’s oil keep the whole country fueled up?

Norton balked at the question. “When you look at it for the whole country, you really get somewhat of a deceiving picture,” the secretary answered. She said that’s “not the way this operates,” and said the question “assumes that unless a source of energy is going to meet all of America’s needs then it’s not worth looking at.”

Washington Post