Benefits Of Oil Drilling in Alaska

Benefits of Oil Drilling in Alaska

The name Alaska means great land or mainland. Alaska is the largest state of the United States of America and it is also the least populated of all the states. It previously belonged to Russia but was purchased in or about 1867. Alaska’s economy is dominated by gas and oil industry and about 80% of the state revenues are earned from these two products. The oil drilling activities are responsible for enough controversies in the USA. Nevertheless, the following are benefits Alaska’s oil drilling;

1. Creation of job opportunities
Drilling for oil involves a lot of digging, use of machines and many experiments which are done beforehand as well as while the digging takes place. This promotes employment opportunities that come with the digging and any other sector involved in the digging. Job opportunities are also created for all related industries.

2. Energy security
Oil consumption generates huge amounts of geothermal, hydroelectric and wind energy resources for the U.S. regardless of the amounts of oil being produced in Alaska, any shock in the market would affect prices of many commodities. Oil provides a safety margin in an event such as what happened in the 1973 oil embargo. This prevents it from causing an economy grind because of lack of oil.

3. Revenue
Extracting huge quantities of gas and crude oil for the country along with some for export generates income for the US. Along with oil drilling there is the extraction of large amounts of coal which are a major requirement for most industries of the country. Revenue is also earned with the exportation of some of this product.
Nevertheless, drilling oil Alaska has various disadvantages especially when it comes to the pollution of the environment where waste materials and oils spills have become very rampant. Some areas which were once beautiful are now filled with wastes products from the drilling.

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