NEAR-RECORD GASOLINE AND CRUDE OIL PRICES UNDERSCORE IMPORTANCE, COMMON SENSE OF ANWR

Average gas prices today half penny below record

March 15, 2005
12:00 AM
Washington, D.C. – Senate Energy & Natural Resources Chairman Pete V. Domenici today noted that gasoline prices are a half penny below a record high after climbing more than 7 percent in the last six weeks and 5.7 cents in the last week. AAA reports the average price of gasoline today at $2.048, 6/10s of a penny below the record average of $2.054 set in May, 2004. Pump prices are expected to average about $2.10 per gallon from September through April, climbing to $2.15 in late spring, according to the Energy Information Administration’s short-term outlook. Domenici’s statement: Former Senator Everett Dirksen is famous for saying,"A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you're talking about real money." The same thing is true for oil. We can get 20 gallons of gasoline from a barrel of oil and we’ve got an estimated average of 10 billion barrels of oil in ANWR. That’s enough oil to make a real difference in our trade deficit, our gasoline supplies and our energy prices. ANWR, at peak production and at today’s oil prices, would pump nearly $50 million into our economy every day. That’s $18 billion a year – money that is going to foreign nations right now. Senator Dirksen would have considered that real money. The money we are spending on oil imports accounts for a fourth of our trade deficit. In 2004, the U.S. Merchandise Trade Deficit was $651.52 billion. Of that, $166.11 billion was spent on the import of crude oil and petroleum products. Last year, OPEC’s 11 members received $338 billion in revenue from global oil exports. That’s nearly a 40 percent increase over the $243 billion the nations received in 2003. Meanwhile, last year our gasoline prices set new records here at home. This year, they are still climbing with no end in sight. Now is the time to develop ANWR.