Renewing its assault on the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, the Alaska House of Representatives recently passed a resolution that urges Congress to open the refuge’s fragile coastal plain to oil exploration.
The US Congress is again considering opening the Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas drilling. The proposal threatens to violate the internationally recognized human rights to culture, subsistence, health, and religion of the Gwich’in people of northeastern Alaska and northwestern Canada. Since time immemorial, the Gwich’in have relied physically, culturally and spiritually on the Porcupine Caribou Herd that calves each spring on the Coastal Plain.
Proponents of opening the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil development profess a commitment to strict environmental regulation, and they assert that new technologies — particularly ice roads and directional drilling — will make drilling in the Arctic Refuge environmentally benign. They cite the recent Alpine oil development as the state-of-the-art showcase for this new technology.
Proponents of drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge opportunistically and incorrectly point to rising gasoline prices as a reason to drill for oil in one of America’s last wild places. If oil were discovered in commercial quantities, it would take 10 years before a single drop could be produced. Recent U.S. Energy Information Administration data indicates that in 2030, when oil discovered in the Arctic Refuge would be near peak production levels, the effect at the gas pump would be about two pennies per gallon.
The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge provides vital habitat for some of America’s most spectacular wildlife. Birds, in particular, rely heavily on the Arctic Refuge. When the weather turns warm, the Coastal Plain of the Arctic Refuge becomes a haven for millions of migrating birds, affording them a safe place to feed, mate and nest.
The following statement from William H. Meadows is in response to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announcement that the agency will conduct a wilderness review for the Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.