Obama war on oil production threatens Alaska pipeline

Unless a technological solution can be found, the arcane physics of crude flow may force the multibillion dollar, 48-inch-wide steel pipeline to shut down — and determine the fate of the largest oil field ever found in the U.S. … There’s one other, seemingly simple fix: Add more oil. “If I could ask for one thing, it is to figure out how to get more oil into this pipe,” says Tom Barrett, president of the pipeline’s owner, Alyeska Pipeline Service Co. But production from Alaska’s giant oil fields has been falling for years. Turning that around would require drilling in new areas, some of them environmentally sensitive and most controlled by the federal government.