Bush's Push for Drilling in Arctic - How big is 2000 acres?

President Bush has been including a call for drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in his regular stump speech.

He recently mentioned how big of an area he wanted to “explore”

"You know, there's 17 million acres up there -- and all they're asking to do is explore on 2,000 of the 17 million, which, had we done this nearly a decade ago, we'd have an additional million barrels of oil -- of U.S. oil helping to fuel our economy."

"We can now reach all of ANWR's oil by drilling on just 2,000 acres... the size of the Columbus airport," declared Bush, citing technological advancements. "We can carry out the project with almost no impact on land or wildlife."

I just have one question, How much space would a 36 inch wide pipe take up, you know like a pipe that would transfer oil from point A to point B? That would travel from Alaska to somewhere in the United States? Would it be somewhere around 2,000 acres?

There are 6272640 square inches in an acre
Divide this by a 36 square inch pipeline
174,240 inches is how far one acre of pipeline will reach
Multiply that by 2,000 acres
Get 348,480,000 inches
That is 5,500 Miles

To drive from the middle of Oregon to the Heart of Alaska it only takes 2,600 miles

This would give tons of room for actual drilling sites, along with a pipeline to connect Alaska to the United States. All in 2,000 acres.

When someone asks for just a small amount of land it is important to keep in mind what you may be giving up. Please keep in mind how much space 2,000 acres is, especially when it is spread thin!

Also, someone please check my math, I do not want to mislead anyone with false numbers.