National Petroleum Reserve

NATIONAL PETROLEUM RESERVE -- (House of Representatives - July 17, 2008)

(Mr. PITTS asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. PITTS. Today my colleagues on the other side of the aisle are bringing up legislation promoting drilling in the National Petroleum Reserve, a large desolate tract of land to the west of ANWR in Alaska. It is nice that they finally acknowledge we need to access more of our own energy resources right here at home. But I do find it strange that they are willing to advocate drilling in the National Petroleum Reserve, which was originally set aside for the use of our military in an emergency, yet they continue to oppose oil exploration in ANWR.

The National Reserve contains about 440 barrels of oil per acre, compared to ANWR's 5,475 barrels per acre. The National Reserve's oil and gas fields are more than 250 miles from existing pipeline infrastructure, compared to ANWR's 75-mile distance. The National Reserve's oil and gas fields are spread out over 23 million acres, compared to 1.9 million acres in ANWR.

It is strange that my colleagues, who are supposed to be more environmentally conscious, would wish to drill for oil that is more spread out and will require a much larger footprint to access instead of using the more concentrated oil and natural gas resources in ANWR.

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