Carroll repeated inaccurate claim that ANWR could produce 1.4 million barrels of oil per day

Summary: Rocky Mountain News editorial page editor Vincent Carroll repeated a 2003 claim that the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) "could produce nearly 1.4 million barrels of oil (a day)." In fact, according to the U.S. Department of Energy's Energy Information Administration, production would have peaked at 780,000 barrels per day.

In his August 9 "On Point" column, Rocky Mountain News editorial page editor Vincent Carroll repeated a 2003 claim -- advanced by then-Interior Secretary Gale Norton -- that Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) "could produce nearly 1.4 million barrels of oil (a day)." In fact, the U.S. Department of Energy's Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported in February that if ANWR had been opened for development in 2005, production would have peaked at 780,000 barrels per day in 2024 -- about half as much production as Norton claimed, with peak production not occurring for another 20 years.

In his column, Carroll referred to an August 8 Wall Street Journal editorial (subscription required) stating that drilling for oil in ANWR would "result in an extra one million barrels a day." Carroll then claimed, "Yet even the Journal may have understated ANWR's potential."

Carroll cited Norton's March 3, 2003, testimony before the House Resources Committee that "ANWR could produce nearly 1.4 million barrels of oil (a day)." Carroll added: "And that 1.4 million barrels a day would likely last for 30 years -- long enough to make huge strides toward development of alternative energy sources."

As Media Matters for America has noted, the EIA's 2006 Annual Energy Outlook (AEO) report released in February concluded that, if ANWR had been opened for development in 2005, production would have peaked at 780,000 barrels per day in 2024, falling to 650,000 barrels per day by 2030.

According to the EIA report, if drilling were allowed in ANWR, oil production for all of Alaska -- not just ANWR -- would peak at 1.4 million barrels a day in 2021 before falling to 930,000 barrels per day by 2030.

From Carroll's August 9 Rocky Mountain News "On Point" column:

The Wall Street Journal noted Tuesday with mischievous glee that whereas the BP pipeline fiasco removes about 400,000 barrels a day from the market, drilling in the nearby Arctic National Wildlife Refuge would "result in an extra 1 million barrels a day" -- and yet is routinely dismissed by opponents as a meaningless addition to supplies.

Yet even the Journal may have understated ANWR's potential.

As former Interior Secretary Gale Norton noted in House testimony three years ago, "ANWR could produce nearly 1.4 million barrels of oil (a day), while Texas produces just more than 1 million barrels a day, California just less than 1 million barrels a day, and Louisiana produces slightly more than 200,000 barrels a day."

And that 1.4 million barrels a day would likely last for 30 years -- long enough to make huge strides toward development of alternative energy sources.

Naturally, the Sierra Club disagrees. "Arctic refuge oil would amount to a drop in the bucket of the oil market," it insists.

—J.S.