Throughout American history, there have been a number of conflicts and disagreements among the populace over various issues. These conflicts of interest help todefine political parties and allow people to distinguish themselves through party allegiance.One such item that is currently being debated is over the idea of drilling for oil in the ArcticNational Wildlife Refuge. For years, environmentalist groups and oil industry supportershave been sparring over this stretch of land. And both sides have formed some prettycompelling arguments for their beliefs.As of February 1, 2000, the United States has imported roughly 10.5 million ofbarrels of oil a day. This translates to about 55 to 56 percent of the 19.3 million barrelsU.S. citizens consume daily. According to experts and politicians, this dependence onforeign oil is damaging the energy industry in America as well as decreasing the amountfluidity we have in foreign markets. And the ever increasing need for oil has only lead tofurther importing. Many industries and government officials fear that if the consumption ofimported crude continues to outweighing the production of domestic, it will eventually leadto jobs moving overseas and the flow of wealth in the energy industry, going towardsmiddle eastern countries.To combat this threatening trend, many Republican oil lobbyists, who dubthemselves the Teamsters, have drawn together an extensive oil producing plan. The plancalls for tapping oil and natural gas deposits in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge(henceforth recognized as ANWR). According to the Teamsters and Alaskan senator Frank Murkowski, deposits in the ANWR region are highly extensive and readily availablefor tapping. Using estimates from 1998 made by U.S. Geological Survey, they believethere is a 5 percent chance of locating and collecting a probable 16 billion barrels of oilfrom the Alaskan wilderness. Of that 16 billion, there is an estimated 95 percent chance oflocating a...
