Yeah well then we might as well but a freakin oil well in every national park since the precedence would be set with ANWR drilling. I also like how every one is all up in arms about not being able to drill there. You know for the good of overall good of the people. Humm who would that be? oh yeah I forgot private interest i.e. oil companies. The only people who would really make out are the AK residents which I could understand their "right" to want to drill there since they are the only citizens who actually benefit from this operation. The other issue is the fact the North Slope has had a nice decline in production so the want to go in other areas to find more oil is understandable.
In essence, drilling is not really about the oil it is about setting a new set of rules on where you could drill. If you allow it in one place, you will allow it another like Yellowstone. Whatever the impact would be it would be short lived since many of the pockets are only would be worth recovering cause oil is running high right now. If this was 10 years ago when oil was 10 bucks a barrel, you would never have had this debate since any oil worth recovering would cost too much much like the oil sands and shales of Canada and now in the Western US regions.
