Dana Milbank BUSTS Norton, Chao on ANWR baloney

WP: Arctic Oil Gets an Administration Gusher
By Dana Milbank
Tuesday, December 13, 2005; Page A02


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."

For the record, ANWR's oil, using the administration's own estimates, would supply the whole country for 13 to 17 months before it runs out....In the afternoon, it was Labor Secretary Elaine Chao's turn. At a news conference at the National Press Club, Chao told the cameras that, according to "congressional estimates," the ANWR project could create a million jobs....


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/12/AR2005121201401.html

:wtf:

That sounds like UTTER b/s to me.

There's NO WAY it'd come close to that.

A million jobs? Chao repeated the forecast to incredulous reporters after the event. "Congress has made estimates that about a million people will be involved," she affirmed. Is that over the life of the project? "I don't think so," Chao said. "That's probably over a year or so."

A million jobs in one year would be so compelling that even environmental groups might be willing to chase the caribou out of ANWR. But Chao was a bit off. The Congressional Research Service, to which Chao directed reporters, put the job growth in the range of 86,000 to 245,000. The million-job forecast, it turns out, is not from Congress but from a conservative think tank and was based on a far larger project than the ANWR drilling.