The March 13 front-page article “Biden to approve massive Alaska oil project” reported that the project will produce between 576 million and 614 million barrels of oil — let’s call it 600 million — over its 30-year life span. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the United States consumed 19.89 million barrels of oil a day in 2021 — call it 20 million. Twenty million barrels a day divided into 600 million total project barrels equals 30 days of U.S. oil consumption. That’s it.
Surely, this modest amount of drilled energy could be offset by any number of simple conservation measures — properly insulating houses comes to mind — especially if President Biden pitched the effort.
Michael Petit, Portland, Maine