ANWR lies in an area known as "The North Slope." Sara Palin (former V.P. hopeful) recently said "We need oil and natural gas, and speaking as someone who is very familiar with The North Slope, there's a lot of it!" Oil is nothing more than liquid money. Anyone who makes a living in the Oil Retrieval, shipping, processing and selling trade would be silly not to try to take advantage of it. The federal government of course has a financial interest also. Taxes are one. Oil company lobbyists and special interest groups are another." The State of Alaska gets most of it's money from oil, and it's citizens are given an "Oil Rebate" check every year.