Oil in the Arctic: New Discoveries

Did you know that the Arctic Circle now contains double the amount of oil that was previously found in that region? According to CNN's recent article, the "Arctic may be home to 30 percent of the planet's undiscovered natural gas reserves and 13 percent of its undiscovered oil" (Azadeh Ansari, CNN). This assessment performed in the Arctic Circle is helping scientists with their latest discoveries, and has the potential to "help oil and gas companies locate new troves of fossil fuels". One of the main concepts of Macroeconomics is the idea of scarcity (and accessibility) to resources: in today's society, fuel and gas are certainly considered to be limited resources. Although offshore oil exploration is at its "infancy", companies such as ExxonMobil have claimed their drilling areas without hesitation. Since the United States is one of the largest consumers of oil and gas, it makes sense that the drilling and oil sources are diversified. Public policy ensures us easier access to such scarce resources, which is especially important in regards to the United States' current situation within the economy.