The problem with most articles about America's dependence on foreign oil is that the author's are often woefully ignorant. Some estimates indicate that the tar sands region in northern Alberta could produce enough oil to sustain the current level of consumption in all of North America for the next 500 years. The problem is that it isn't terribly cost-effective to get most of the stuff out of the ground.
Even if ANWR were opened tomorrow, the U.S. would still import oil from the cheapest sources all over the globe. And you can be sure that the high cost of U.S. labor and a strong U.S. dollar will make ANWR oil far more costly to extract than oil from anywhere else in the world.
How about the Green River Shale formation in UT, CO and WY. Isn't that even a larger reserve than the Tar Sands?