Where There Is Oil There is a Way
The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge conserves wildlife and wilderness in northeast Alaska. The refuge is home to thousands of migratory birds and to some 40,000 porcupine caribou calves who are born there each year. And yet despite the purpose of wildlife conservation in this area, on April 28th the American House and Senate passed a joint budget resolution that paves the way for oil drilling in the refuge. They are also expected sometime within the next month to O.k the project.Perhaps this would be understandable, given the cost of fuel. One might assume this would result in lower prices at the pump and allow the United States to be less dependent on overseas energy. However..
The potential of oil in the ANWR depends on limited data and numerous assumptions about geology and economics. The most recent U.S. Geological Survey estimates that there is a 95% chance that 4.3 billion barrels of oil may be "technically" recoverable, although when taking cost into consideration this is reduced to 2.0 billion "economically" recoverable barrels. While this sounds like a considerable number it actually amounts to less than the United States uses in 6 months. At peak production, it would produce 0.75 million barrels of oil per day as compared to domestic consumption of 19 million barrels per day. Even this modest amount of oil wouldn't be available for years; it would take 15-20 years before production was fully on line.
Of course the government is suggesting (www.anwr.org) the yield could be over a million barrels a day. And it could be.. If you're the type who likes to gamble. The USGS reports that the likeliness of more than .75 million barrels per day is less than 6%.
Still the government presses on for "responsible development" of the ANWR, using this slight possibility in its list of ten reasons to support the plan. Along with increased revenue, jobs, technology, and the promise of little intrusion and damage.. It sounds all too sickly familiar coming from those mouths.
When you consider that 95% of Alaska's Northern Slope is already open for drilling and oil exploration, the remaining 5% (the coastal plain of the Arctic Wildlife Refuge) is the only wild stretch of Alaska's North Slope coast left untouched. It is expected that drilling will have a devastating effect on this delicate refuge . Decimating nesting grounds for thousands of migratory birds and the porcupine caribou, as well as impacting the livelihood of the Gwich'in people of the northernYukon who rely heavily on the migrating caribou.
For more information on the Gwich'in and their culture, please visit here:
www.gwichin.org/gwichin.html
If you're interested in additional information, particularly related U.S. policy, please visit here:
www.policyalmanac.org
/environment/archive/crs_anwr.shtml
For the USGS report on the affects drilling would have on the caribou, please visit here:
www.usgs.gov/anwr/report.html
And lastly, WWF Canada has launched a campaign to bring awareness to the situation in ANWR here:
www.donotdrill.ca
The government does give a good ten reasons to allow this project to occur. But there are 40,000 + great and beautiful reasons to simply leave the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve alone.
