Alaskan Oil for Dummies

Alaska winter oil rig

Our research staffers often find "bias" in the answers concocted by contributors to the failing website eHow.com: #SAD. All kidding aside, people who know next to nothing about a subject seem far more likely to insert their personal opinions into their freelance assignments than those with first-hand knowledge (think not? just read anything about fracking...). That seems to be the case with today's DotD nominee, Erik Devaney, and his Sciencing.com article "The Disadvantages of Oil Drilling in Alaska."

Devaney, as seems the case with so many idealists, immediately jumped to the conclusion that the OQ wanted to know what sort of environmental impact drilling in Alaska might have. Fair enough, though the dire warning in his introduction seems rather... biased:

"Oil drilling in Alaska has already had severe impacts on the ocean, landscape and local wildlife, and the ongoing motivation of oil companies to tap and exploit oil deposits means that problems could continue to grow."

Why Erik seems to think that the effects of hydrocarbon production and transportation on "the ocean, landscape and local wildlife" in Alaska are significantly different from production and transportation in Louisiana or Texas is beyond us. In fact, we're not really sure how drilling affects the landscape anywhere... but hey, it's his article (even if it is supposed to be factual [or at least as factual as eHow niche sites get]).

Devaney goes on to list all the horrid things that drilling can cause:

• Pollution (although we think that the Exxon Valdez disaster is only indirectly related to "drilling").
• Landscape Concerns (sure, the Alaska Pipeline is 800 miles long – but it's not 800 miles wide!)
• Animal Impacts: "There are several native species in Alaska that suffer, or could potentially suffer, from the effects of oil drilling. These include caribou, musk oxen, porcupines, ravens, gulls, arctic foxes, wolves, snow geese, shorebirds and seabirds, and polar bears." (that's just a list of species. Ravens? Gulls? Porcupines?)
• Plant Impacts: "Seismic vibrations can disrupt plants' growth patterns." (Really?)

When you come right down to it, however, there's a better-than-even chance that the OQ wanted to know the disadvantages of drilling in Alaska compared to the lower 48. You know, things like:

• It's effin' cold up there! 
• The presence of permafrost complicates building infrastructure
• Especially on the North Slope, it's hundreds of miles to civilization and to places for refining and shipping the product.
• Bringing in even day-to-day supplies is expensive.

But did Devaney think of these or any of the other disadvantages of drilling in Alaska? Of course not – all he could think of was a handful of widely publicized environmental disasters and dire predictions made by organizations lobbying against opening ANWR. That's not an answer to the question, but it does qualify Erik as a Dumbass of the Day!

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