If we cut gas consumption by 5 percent, AND got oil from ANWR, we would be doing even better, wouldn't we?

Anyway, ANWR isn't the only area closed off to drilling for American oil. Alaska is only the Poster Boy you hear about.

The environmentalists have squashed almost any oil development almost anywhere in the U.S. where there are known reserves. New offshore exploration in almost all coastal areas is restricted. It is estimated that about half the oil and one-fourth of the natural gas in the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) region is in these restricted areas. Other restricted areas include areas of the Rocky Mountains which appear to contain large reservoirs of natural gas.

To be fair, Republicans have sometimes been as big a roadblock as Democrats in U.S. oil exploration. George H. W. Bush signed the original OCS moratoriums in 1994, which Clinton extended for ten years (environmentalists wanted them to be permanent.) Jeb Bush has also been a major force preventing exploitation of Gulf Oil resources.

If we really want to pull the teeth out of the Mideast, we need to start drilling for American oil.

You might also want to look into how England would be doing if environmentalists had managed to shut off exploitation of the North Sea Oil reserves.