Will opening ANWR solve the high gas prices? Well of course not, but it will allow me buy a brand new SUV.

ANWR is our Holy Grail up here in Alaska. We talk about it with the same reverence that Catholics talk about the "Shroud of Turin". We have heard that it might not be real but we refuse to lose faith in the potential windfall for our state. Many of us remember the high times that we enjoyed when the pipeline was being built from Prudhoe Bay in the seventies and eighties.

But the harsh reality of ANWR is that it is a bunch of hype that may very well line the pockets of some of us in Alaska, but will not mean dick to the rest of the country.

This reporter has it about right:

The Energy Dept. figures that, from the day final approval is granted, it would take seven to 12 years to begin producing oil. That means ANWR oil would come on stream in 2013 and peak at about 876,000 barrels per day in 2024.

Drilling in ANWR isn’t likely to make much of a dent on the cost of crude. With global demand of some 85 million barrels a day — and rising — even an extra 1 million barrels a day wouldn't be enough to have a significant long-term impact on prices. Assuming global demand continues to grow by 2 percent a year, a million barrels a day will represent about 1 percent of overall demand by 2013.

So though I run the risk of being politely (or possibly impolitely) being asked to leave this beautiful place, I feel obligated to shine a light on our little deception. We just want to bring money into our state, we do not give a shit about helping anybody in the "lower 48" or lowering your energy costs. We don't really even like most of you which is why we choose to live up here away from you.

No offense.