Report: Arctic Has 90 Billion Barrels of Oil

The area north of the Arctic Circle has an estimated 90 billion barrels of undiscovered, technically recoverable oil, says the U.S. government.

There's also 1,670 trillion cubic feet of technically recoverable natural gas, and 44 billion barrels of technically recoverable natural gas liquids in 25 geologically defined areas thought to have potential for petroleum. [snip]

"Before we can make decisions about our future use of oil and gas and related decisions about protecting endangered species and the health of our planet [?], we need to know what's out there. With this assessment, we're providing the same information to everyone in the world so that the global community can make those difficult decisions." [snip]

In August 2007, Russian divers in a mini-sub planted a titanium flag of their country under the North Pole, on a seabed 14,000 feet down. Canada immediately criticized the implied claim of control...

[looks like Russia's already made its 'difficult decisions'. Does anyone really believe that the US's declining to exploit energy resources leads to more responsible development by those who will in our absence? Like Russia? China?]

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