Keepin' those Alaskan pipelines full, while protecting the environment. That's a win-win.

Aside from the prospect of expanding domestic oil supplies, the new production would help alleviate worries about the viability of the Alaska pipeline system.

The pipeline is transporting 700,000 barrels of oil daily, down from 2.1 million when the Prudhoe Bay fields were at peak production in 1988. If the amount of oil in the pipeline falls too low in the bitter Arctic climate, it is no longer able to flow south to the tankers that take it to California for processing.

Once more, an Ed Morrissey analysis is in order:

Oil prices have tumbled the last two days since Bush lifted the executive order. The price on a barrel of oil fell more than $10, the largest such reduction in almost 20 years. Analysts in the media claim that the prices have fallen due to "demand destruction" and the fears of a long economic slowdown in the US, in which less energy will get expended. However, that doesn't take into account the rising demand from China and India, which is expected to grow -- and so a lack of American demand doesn't make a lot of sense as the reason for the sharp drop. The markets may have begun to factor in more American production -- and more moves to open resources in the US could add to the momentum.

It's almost as if good news is reassuring to the markets or something. Weird.

(Cross-posted at Little Miss Attila.)