http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/14/AR2005121401933.html
Our Fake Drilling Debate -- 12/15/05 --- George Will
(Snip)
Opponents worry that the caribou will be disconsolate about, and their reproduction disrupted by, this intrusion by man. The same was said 30 years ago by opponents of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline, which brings heated oil south from Prudhoe Bay. Since the oil began flowing, the caribou have increased from 5,000 to 31,000. Perhaps the pipeline's heat makes them amorous.
Ice roads and helicopter pads, which will melt each spring, will minimize man's footprint, which will be on a 2,000-acre plot about one-fifth the size of Dulles Airport. Nevertheless, opponents say the environmental cost is too high for what the ineffable John Kerry calls "a few drops of oil." Some drops. The estimated 10.4 billion barrels of recoverable oil -- such estimates frequently underestimate actual yields -- could supply all the oil needs of Kerry's Massachusetts for 75 years.
Flowing at 1 million barrels a day -- equal to 20 percent of today's domestic oil production -- ANWR oil would almost equal America's daily imports from Saudi Arabia.
Dennis Miller had a show a while back where he spoke of the caribou and even brought one on stage. Having seen one, a few disconsolate caribou wouldn't be any big deal.
Hell, warm the place up with a coupla nooks and transport some camels. Nobody would know the difference.