Will Offshore Drilling Lower Gasoline Prices to Two Dollars a Gallon?

Congresswoman Michele Bachman follows the tried and true method of getting published at the National Review – she lied to her readers (over and over):

Like I knew it would, the American Energy Tour unveiled the truth about the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) — what Democrats in Washington don’t want the American people to know: This is a treasure trove of energy that will yield a lot with only minimal intrusion ... The Energy Information Administration (EIA) estimates that there are 10.4 billion barrels of recoverable oil in ANWR ... It gets better; the EIA has also stated that the production of this oil would create an estimated as many as 750,000 American jobs. At a time when our nation is hurting because of rising food and gas costs, more domestic energy and new jobs would give the economy a much needed boost. The fact of the matter is that Congress is standing in the way of $2-a-gallon gas.

Bachman failed to tell her readers that this same EIA noted the extra production would occur in about a generation – not today. She also failed to note that this same EIA predicted that the effect on oil prices would be a mere $0.75 a barrel, which translates into about $0.02 per gallon. Now I suspect most people know the difference between 2 cents and 2 dollars – but not the editors of the National Review.

Update: Eric Kleefeld has an excellent discussion of the National Review nonsense including a summary of the EIA analysis.