Arctic oil: Facts versus Fiction (ANWR)

Over the years there have been a host of reasons given by environmentalists for why the coastal plain should not be developed. While some already have been mentioned, the following is a summary of others that require attention:

Myth: There's only a 200-day supply there, so why bother. Fact: The truth is that the latest U.S. Geological Survey estimates are that the entire "1002 Area" contains up to16 billion barrels of recoverable oil. If found, this oil could replace all of our imports from Saudi Arabia for more than 30 years! The reserve could prevent our dependence on foreign oil from getting any worse for decades. Rather than being 56 percent dependent like we are now, it could cut our dependence to around 50 percent, according to the Energy Information Agency.

Myth: They want to destroy the last pristine wilderness along Alaska's coast, even though 95% of the area is already open to oil development. Fact: The truth is that only 14 percent of the whole 1,500-mile Arctic coastal plain in Alaska is open to oil exploration. Estimates are upon discovery a major oil field could be developed using modern technology, affecting only a tiny 2,000-acre sliver of the 1.5-million-acre "1002 Area" of the Arctic coastal plain -- one hundredth of a percent of the entire 19-million-acre ANWR area. Remember that 8 million acres of the refuge are in permanent wilderness and roughly another 9.5 million acres are classified as normal refuge. Only a part of the Arctic coastal plain -- the "1002 Area" was left open for possible oil and gas development.

Myth: Oil drilling would affect the caribou. Fact: There is absolutely no indication that environmentally responsible exploration will harm the 129,000-member Porcupine caribou herd. In fact, the history over the past 26 years at neighboring Prudhoe Bay shows the opposite. There the Central Arctic caribou herd has more than tripled in size, from 6,000 animals in 1978 to 19,700 today. Caribou will flourish as they have throughout Alaska, where caribou out number people three to two. No hunting by non-Natives will be allowed.

Myth: Drilling would destroy the Native Gwich'in culture. Fact: The fear that Arctic development will harm the caribou and the Gwich'in culture is groundless. Given the strict controls planned to prevent disruption to the herd¹s summer calving grounds nothing will prevent the caribou from passing close enough to the Gwich¹ins -- protecting their yearly hunt. The Gwich'ins concern for oil development certainly seems recent. Just 15 years ago they issued a request for proposals to lease their 1.79 million acres of land for oil development. No where did they require restrictions to protect the caribou. Only when no oil was found on their lands did the Gwich'ins oppose oil work. (See Gwich'in land lease proposal)

Myth:Canada has protected their wildlife, we should do the same. Fact: Canada finally created a national park, but did so only after extensive exploration in the 1960s failed to find oil. Canadians on their Arctic coastal plain drilled 89 exploratory wells and extended the Dempster Highway from Dawson to Innuvik, cutting through the center of the Porcupine caribou herd's migration route. Such development did not harm the herd.

Myth:The coastal plain is America's last wilderness and must be protected. Fact: Alaska is already well protected. Less than 1 percent of Alaska currently is in private ownership and available for development. Alaska already has 192 million acres of parks, refuges, preserves and conservation system units, including 58 million acres of designated wilderness -- 61 percent of all American wilderness. Wilderness in Alaska already covers an area that equals all of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, West Virginia and Maryland. Further, in the coastal plain lies the Village of Kaktovik and its 222 residents, as well as a number of old radar sites.

Myth: Oil exploration would destroy the habitat of polar bears. Fact: Alaska has healthy stocks of polar bears, estimated at around 2,000. The Administration has positively identified only 15 polar bear dens on the entire coastal plain over an 11-year period. That¹s just one or two dens a year. Given that very little of the denning occurs on land -- most on the Arctic ice pack -- development certainly will not affect polar bears.

Myth: Prudhoe Bay has been littered with chemical and oil spills, the Arctic having been despoiled by some 17,000 spills since the 1970s. Fact: While some have claimed that oil development at Prudhoe Bay has harmed the environment, the truth is that Alaska's Arctic slope is still pristine. The few oil and chemical spills have almost always been confined to frozen gravel pads where they have been easily cleaned up. In 1993, for example, there were more than 160 "spills" on the North Slope involving nearly 60,000 gallons -- the highest level of spills in the 1990s. But only two spills involved oil and all but 10 gallons were into secondary containment structures and were easily cleaned up. Prudhoe Bay is by far the finest oil field in the world -- bar none!

Myth: Producing more oil would simply cause Americans to buy more gas-guzzling cars and defeat energy conservation efforts. Fact: America needs to be more energy efficient and to develop renewable, alternative fuels. But even with increased energy efficiency and conservation U.S. energy demands are forecast to increase by 19 percent in this decade and by 30 percent by 2020. By then America will be producing just 5.26 million barrels of oil a day if we continue on our current trend -- being forced to import 65 percent of our energy needs, according to the non-partisan Energy Information Agency. We will be needing to dock 30 giant foreign-flagged supertankers a day -- more than 10,000 a year -- to import the oil we need. That creates much more environmental risk than developing our own resources.

Myth: The vast majority of Americans oppose disturbing the Alaska Arctic. Fact: While there is a lot of misinformation about oil development in northern Alaska, Americans support responsible development when they know the facts about it. A poll by Gordon S. Black Corp. found that 56 percent support ANWR leasing, 37 percent oppose and 7 percent were undecided in a poll taken before the recent sharp rise in fuel prices. Americans want to protect the environment, but 74 percent support efforts to produce oil and natural gas resources within America. Alaskans do support it. The entire Congressional Delegation, the state's Senate and House, the Governor and 78 percent of residents of the village of Kaktovik, the Native village within the coastal plain, support development.

Myth: America doesn't need to open the plain while it allows exports of some of Alaska's oil. Fact: It is true that Congress in 1995 finally repealed a 1973 prohibition that had prevented any Alaska North Slope oil from being exported overseas. America for four years has exported a tiny amount of oil, about 5 percent, only oil that was excess to British Petroleum's West Coast refinery needs.

But with the pending merger of British Petroleum-Amoco and ARCO, Phillips Petroleum will take over ARCO Alaska's oil and facilities and end the need for exports. B.P. recently announced it will suspend any North Slope oil exports by the end of April when current contracts expire because there will be now be excess refinery capacity on the West Coast to handle all Alaska oil.

This is thus no longer an issue. For the record a study by the General Accounting Office last year confirmed that lifting the export ban produced twice as much new oil in America as exported and did so without any observable price hikes on consumers on the West Coast. (Source: Alaskan North Slope Oil: Limited Effects of Lifting Export Ban on Oil and Shipping Industries and Consumers, July 1999, GAO RCED-99-191.)

Myth: Alaskans are so "wealthy" they don't need to have ANWR opened. Fact: Alaska is far from a wealthy state. It is true that the state has a "permanent fund" -- the savings from a quarter of the leases, royalties and bonus payments the state has received as a result of development of the Prudhoe Bay oil field. The fund now stands at about $27 billion and currently pays all state residents a yearly dividend, about $1,500 per person. But Alaska citizens are expected to use their dividends to pay for services that might otherwise be provided by government (thus letting individuals make spending decisions at the local level rather than at the state level). And Alaska, the highest cost-of-living state in the nation and one of the last states to join the union, has billions of dollars of unmet infrastructure and social service needs -- no roads cross most of Alaska -- and sports the most fragile economy of any state in the Union.

Alaska always has been dependent on resource industries for its economy. While tourism is still growing, the Administration has been actively seeking to fell the state's timber industry. It has done nothing to promote a rebirth of its historic mining industry, and while our fishery harvests continue at an all-time high, prices for our fish are dropping. The simple fact is that oil accounts for far more than half of Alaska's gross product, and without future oil development Alaska's economy will sicken, forcing more and more Alaskans back onto the federal welfare dole.

Alaska's timber industry has fallen 62 percent (based on employment) in the past decade. Its oil and gas industry has lost 21 percent of its jobs in the same period, and its mining industry is down 16.5 percent. The state's per capita income is 20th among the states, but ranks 2.7 percent below the national average. The state's gross product is in decline having fallen to $22 billion from $23.9 billion in inflation adjust numbers since 1991. And further proof is that some 32,000 young Alaskans (aged 20-34) have left the state in the past eight years in search of higher paying employment.

That is particularly upsetting since the state's rural areas still suffer from enormous sanitation and health needs, estimated at more than $1.3 billion -- the state¹s rural, Native villages often sporting 19th Century water and sewer services. Forcing predominately Alaska Natives back into a lifestyle of government dependence for no justifiable reason shows a callous disregard for the aspirations of all Americans.

Myth: Opening the coastal plain would destroy the "biological heart" of the wildlife refuge. Fact: This is the most farfetched criticism of permitting oil exploration on parts of the 8 percent of the wildlife refuge that front the Arctic ocean. It assumes that opening the refuge would harm the Arctic Porcupine caribou herd. But the herd only moves into the area in about three of every 10 years and only from early June into July. The legislation pending would prevent any drilling or development activity during the caribou calving season to prevent any disruption to the herd. The real proof that the coastal plain could be opened without harm to wildlife and the environment is that Alaskan Eskimos have lived in the Far North for tens of thousands of years, surviving on the flat, treeless, generally barren and generally frozen coastal plain. Their culture is based on a deep reverence for the land. They depend not just on the caribou of the plain, but the whales of the offshore waters. The Eskimo inhabitants of Kaktovik, who depend on subsistence to eke out a living in the Far North, would not be the biggest supporters of oil exploration unless they were absolutely convinced from their experience at Prudhoe Bay that oil development can be done safely without harm to their land, the wildlife they depend on and their heritage. By a recent poll 78 percent of Kaktovik residents support development.

The legislation, introduced in the U.S. Senate to permit opening of the coastal plain, fully protects the environment. The stipulations include dozens of recommendations to the Secretary of the Interior that would encourage him to:

Adopt the environmental mitigation suggestions in the 1987 Environmental Impact Statement, designed to protect wildlife on the coastal plain.

Place seasonal limitations on exploration, development and related activities to avoid impacts on fish and wildlife, such as preventing surface disruptions during June and July, during the Porcupine caribou herd calving period.

Limit initial exploration efforts to between Nov. 1 and May 1 -- the Arctic winter -- to guarantee no impacts from exploration.

I'm sorry to hear that. I've always thought highly of both Phillips and Conoco as energy producers.

I remember when Conoco opened their Milne Point facility on the slope, it was rather impressive at the time. If I remember correctly Conoco was also the first company to exclusively utilize double hulled tankers in Prince William sound.

The point you seem to be missing is that American oil is not price competitive and American consumers want the cheapest gas they can get.

The Saudi threat is not ( I repeat -not- ) to shut off supply it is to boost supply and put its competitors out of business. They made a big mistake in '72 when they should have boosted production. If they had, Israel would not exist today.

The big oil companies thrive on oil shortages and war. They have given up trying to control the amount of crude oil (the world is litterally floating in oil) and now they focus on limiting refineries (with the greenies help). Most of their profit comes in distributing the refined product and they can control the amount of refined products.

Anwr will not get developed for a long time because it is the last thing anyone with power and money wants. They want shortages!

No, BP can't develop the ANWR because the government doesn't want a totally foreign owned company to own such a large percentage of our oil. It's a good thing, too. BP was the company that convinced Clinton to write the EO, allowing Alaskan crude to be sold overseas.

You don't know what you are talking about. The only reason that BP wanted to sell its Alaskan crude to Japan was because they didn't own any west coast refineries. The companies with west coast refineries and are banned from owning their own intercoastal shipping company. They have since fixed that with the creation of a straw company called ATC, (Alaska Tanker Company).

In a press release in todays (Kenai) Peninsula Clarion;

Murkowski says ANWR issue is dead

Sen. Frank Murkowski has made it official. Drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge will not be included in a national energy bill, even if congress can agree on a bill when lawmakers reconvene sometime after the Nov. 5 election, the senator said Friday during a news conference at his Anchorage office.

Murkowski said Democrats who oppose drilling in the refuge won't budge. And he said Sen. Jeff Binghaman, D-N.M., who is leader of the senate negotiators, has made it clear he won't send any version of the bill back to the House if it contains drilling in ANWR. "They will not accept any compromise on ANWR," Murkowski said of the Democrats.

Murkowski said construction of a North Slope natural gas pipeline remains in the energy bill but there are a few sticking points, including price supports for Alaska natural gas.

One of the most contentious issues is over how much utilities should be REQUIRED to rely on renewable sources of energy, such as wind and solar.

including price supports for Alaska natural gas

That should not happen in the 'free' market. Even though it guarantees the gas pipeline will be built through Fairbanks, it also guarantees we will pay for the pipeline through taxes rather than by using gas.

I couldn't agree more. I believe this provision was added to placate the oil companies.

Reading back through this thread reminded me of the Milne Point camp. It sure looked good back in those days, I couldn't believe how much money they spent building such a grand building. Keeping in mind that I was staying over at Nana camp next tot he airport, nothing but ATCO trailers glued together. But even that was grand living compared to a couple of other places. Remember Child's General Store and camp.... Nice people but what a mess.

As much as Hickel is ridiculed in some circles, we are going to need someone of his ilk in order to get something done in ANWR, and possibly for the gas line. Sooner or later, the bulldozers are going to have to be sent in to get the job done. People will scream and yell, but the job needs to get done.

I still have the old tee shirt that says "I did hard time at Milne Point."

We need to do something about development of our natural resources. IMO Frank is the man for the job.

Keeping in mind that I was staying over at Nana camp next to the airport

Who did you work for? I was living in Deadhorse proper at that time also.

Arctic Slope Telephone, or ASTAC. We had the local phone service and served 7 other native villages up on the slope. Left in 87 when the big crunch hit. Who were you with?

I still have my "Property of Deadhorse Correctional Facility" t-shirt. Been a long time since I saw the place. Did you see those pictures of "Toby" the grizzly that got into one of the camps last week. They actually shot him up on the 2nd floor of one of the camps.

Arctic Slope Telephone, or ASTAC. We had the local phone service and served 7 other native villages up on the slope.

I've dealt with those ASTAC boys and Flossie for years. I've worked for Brooks Range Supply, Conam, Alaska Petroleum Contractors, and SKW. The last place I worked was over in Nuiqsut during the Alpine development, and then on the village water and sewer project. What a mess.

I didn't see any pictures of Toby, but I read about it in the Clarion. Saw names of people I know being interviewed in relation to the bear being killed. I can't wait for my buddy that works security for Phillips/Conoco to get home this week. He always has amazing stories.

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