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Alaska governor Sarah Palin: Good looking, relatively inexperienced. Do you think McCain's team finally decided that's not such a bad combo? I'll let Democrats cringe at the nightmare series of events that could install Palin as our Cutest President Ever. I'm more interested in her gung-ho enthusiasm to drill for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. It would be a resource bonanza for her state, which Palin feels is too reliant on federal handouts and big oil companies. But would the extra oil make a difference? Here's a bite-sized summary of stats from the Energy Information Administration, which provides that Bush guy you hate with official numbers:

  • Estimated recoverable oil and gas in the ANWR is about 10 billion barrels. The rest of the United States has another 120 billion barrels. Worldwide reserves? Just over 1 trillion barrels. ANWR has about 1 percent of the world's oil.
  • If the U.S. moves forward on drilling now, there still won't be any ANWR oil for another ten years. That's 2018.
  • Price is what matters, right? ANWR oil will — according to the Bush administration's own stats — lower prices by less than a dollar a barrel. In 2026.

So yeah, ANWR drilling would be great for Alaska, but the global oil market is, as one EIA analyst put it to me, like a giant bathtub. Producers pour oil in at the top, buyers take it out at the bottom, but it's hard for a single supplier to have much of an effect on prices. Valleywag's advice for Palin: Back off on the drilling and get some Tina Fey eyeglasses — they'd look great on you!