Strings attached. Always strings attached.

When I first saw the news that the Senate GOP was looking to give $100 to all taxpayers as "relief" from high gas prices, I thought it was merely a cynical biscuit thrown to the masses to shut them up -- everyone likes a giveaway, right? -- but then I read a little more and saw that the giveaway wasn't exactly a giveaway. It was what you might call a bribe.

Those sneaky Republicans had cleverly drafted yet another ANWR drilling bill and had craftily marketed it as a $100 rebate for taxpayers. They're like horny teenage boys trying to get their girls to put out for them: if I buy you dinner? how about a movie? What about $100, y'know, as compensation for, um, high gas prices?

ANWR is a boondoggle -- it's about lining the pockets of a few businesses and politicians for little return and a devastating impact on one of the few pristine environments we have. ANWR is estimated to have between 9 and 16 billion barrels of oil sitting under it. Sounds like a lot, and the proponents are keen to throw around statistics like "ANWR's oil could supply North Dakota's energy needs for 393 years!"

Wow! Unfortunately, the US is composed of 50 states and various territories and ANWR's oil supply, when shared among all those entities and not only North Dakota, would last only 2 or 2.5 years at the most generous estimate of its reserves (these raw numbers leave out the fact that ANWR would take 10 years to come online and about 20 years to reach peak production). Furthermore, its overall impact on US dependence on foreign oil would be utterly negligible: we'd import 66.7% of our oil instead of 70%. [see MSNBC.com for stats, which come from an Energy Department study that takes a mean of 10.4 billion barrels in ANWR to arrive at its numbers].

As of 2001, the US consumes about 7 billion barrels of oil a year. Japan ran a distant second with 1.9 billion barrels, and China took third with 1.8 billion barrels. In 2005, the US consumed 7.25 billion barrels a year. China jumped into second place with 2.3 billion barrels, and Japan fell to third with 2 billion barrels. If you care to crunch numbers a wee bit further, you'd note that China's consumption jumped by 500 million barrels, or roughly 22% in four years. It's not terribly inconceivable that China's oil demands will continue to grow at a double-digit rate. Paul Krugman notes that industrial expansion in developing countries will increase world demand far quicker than it has in the past.

Here's the address for City Bikes: 2501 Champlain Street NW.