U.S. Commerce Secretary Gutierrez

Oil imports to the nation currently cost America $37,750,000 per hour and over $330 billion dollars a year.  That does not include the cost to protect our oil sources.  The 10-02 Area of ANWR could add over 1 million barrels of oil a day to the Trans-Alaska Pipeline system.  The Office of Management and Budget estimated tax and royalty revenue for ANWR oil could reach $273 billion dollars.  The revenue saved from spending money abroad for oil coupled with the oil royalties and taxes paid by the industry to produce the oil would decrease our national debt substantially as well as boost the economy nationwide.  Secretary Gutierrez spoke about the difficulties of passing ANWR legislation under the current Democrat controlled Congress and with the 3 current presidential candidates stating opposition to the cause.  “We have to stick with it”, Gutierrez stated, “because we know its right”.  Gutierrez continued, “ we believe it’s the right thing…we believe we have the science on our side, and its just a matter of sticking with it….if 105 dollar oil hasn’t convinced us, I just hope we don’t need higher prices to convince us that we need to do more to develop our own sources.”  Senator Stevens added that he believed there was a possibility after the November elections to do something on ANWR in Congress.   Stevens stated there have been predictions that there will be further increases in the price of oil and “this will mean there will have to be a change on ANWR”.  Senator Stevens recalled seven years ago during an ANWR vote in Congress opposition politicians complained that it would take ‘7 years’ to develop ANWR, “here we are, seven years later and the price of oil is three times that it was back then”.  With new technology, Stevens said we could develop ANWR in less time than that.

You can see a video interview with the Secretary and read more on the Fairbanks Daily News Miner article about the Commerce Secretary's visit: