The Tax Bill Is a Massive Gift to the Oil Industry - That It May Not Want

But that revenue depends on private oil companies’ interest in doing so. Drilling in these remote areas carries increased danger for machine operators and wildlife, as well as spill risk. And with the current low price of oil, some argue that drilling in that precarious environment is not economically viable anyway. “We think there is almost no rationale for Arctic exploration,” one Goldman Sachs analyst recently said. “Immensely complex, expensive projects like the Arctic we think can move too high on the cost curve to be economically doable.” Which means that the government might not get anywhere near $1.1 billion in revenue from drilling in the ANWR—and that lost revenue is going to have to be found somewhere else.

The Tax Bill Is a Massive Gift to the Oil Industry - That It May Not Want