Drilling for Oil in the Artic National Wildlife Refuge

Environmentalists are one the biggest critics against the notion of increasing domestic oil drilling. By increasing the amount of drilling we do in the United States, we increase the risk of disasters like the Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Disasters are hardly the only source of economic damage either, to find oil reserves under the ocean, seismic waves are generated into the ground. These waves bounce off the ground back up to the ship, where computers and scientist can use the results to make educated guesses on whether or not oil is located under the surface. These seismic waves can wreak havoc with marine animals like whales; where in one case over 100 whales beached themselves to get away from the painful experience (Nixon). Using seismic waves does not even guarantee that oil might be located underneath the surface, the only way to tell is to actually drill into the potential finds causing even more destruction for what might be for no gain. Once oil is found and drilling has begun, the amount of damage done to the environment can become unimaginable. The recent example is that of the Deepwater

Oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is a very controversial topic. On one end you have the people who want to drill for oil to help out our economy, and on the other end there are the environmentalists and the Alaskan natives who do not want their land destroyed. Our economy needs help; oil prices keep rising, gas prices have reached an all time high, and America is depending too much on foreign trade. Drilling for oil in Alaska will solve these problems. There are ways of drilling without disturbing the environment and keeping the animals in their original habitat.

A major claim from the supporters view is that there would decrease United States dependence on foreign oil. Although, it seems logical for the United States to drill on its own land to decrease dependence on imported oil, but that would not be the case in ANWR. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, there are 4-10 billion barrels of oil that can be recovered from the refuge’s coastal plain that is enough for another 4-10 months (Cunningham, 2009, p. 287). A poll from February 2000, Alaskans support opening ANWR

In the 1940's and 1950's, Secretary of the Interior, Fred Seaton, designated 8.9 million acres of coastal plain and mountains of northeast Alaska as a refuge.[iii] The remaining part of the 23 million acres became multiple use land, which included uses such as oil and gas development and exploration. In 1968 the largest oil field in North America was discovered in Prudhoe Bay also in northern Alaska. Reserves of oil were also believed to exist in what is now known as Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. In 1978-79 the House of Representatives passed legislation designating the refuge as wilderness. The Senate however, required studies of wildlife and petroleum resources and potential impacts of development on the wildlife.[iv] In 1980 President Carter signed Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act into law (ANILCA). ANILCA doubled the size of the refuge, making it roughly 20 million acres and named it the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR).[v]

     Most individuals may think that drilling and transporting oil on the ANWR will put many animals in danger, when in all reality the animals and their environment will be subjected to little or no danger. There are many reasons for this. Firstly, a great deal of oil drilling experience has already been learned in the Arctic area because of previous drilling done at Prudhoe Bay, which has taught oil companies extensive safety precautions in the drilling and transporting of oil. Prudhoe Bay which is only couple miles from the ANWR and currently Americas largest source of oil is said to rival the amount of oil on the ANWR. Moreover, the ANWR stretches a vast 19 million acres and the only land that is going to be affected by the drilling is a mere 1.9 million acres, called the 1002 area. That is only 2% of the ANWR region. Of the 1.9 million acres only 2000 of those acres will actually be utilized for drilling purposes. Conclusively, this should in no way endanger the animals in this area.

The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, comprising more than nineteen million acres in the northern corner of Alaska, is unique and one of the largest units of the National Wildlife system. The Arctic Refuge has long been recognized as an unparalleled place of natural beauty and ecological importance. The Arctic Refuge was established to conserve fish and wildlife populations and habitats in their natural diversity, as well as provide the opportunity for local residents to continue their subsistence way of life. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which manages the Refuge, calls it

Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), the crowned jewel of the nation’s 544 refuges is in danger of destruction (Lamar and Markey 12). ANWR has been in existence since 1960 and has slowly become one of the most controversial topics to hit Congress. ANWR is composed of 19 million acres on the northeast coast of Alaska. Although the government has been provided with this immense land they are fighting to gain more land. Why? ANWR is the second biggest oil field that is owned by the U.S. Now the government wants more land to construct oil reserves. The refuge is home to many endangered species such as migratory birds, polar bears, and wolves (Lynne and Roberts 1). Most of ANWR’s designated oil area is owned by indigenous Alaskan

Enbridge estimates that 99% of the crude oil from Alberta is transported to the United States. Currently though, America 's demand for imported oil is decreasing (AsiaPacific.ca/Canadian Oil), as oil-exploitation in the

     In the article, the Lovins? write, ?In sum, even if drilling in the Artic Wildlife Refuge posed no environmental or human rights concerns, it still could not be justified on economic or security grounds.? (Armory B. Lovins and L. Hunter Lovins, page 130) This may have been true when they wrote the article but the economics of the United States and the world have changed. They argue that the amount of oil in ANWR and the projected price per barrel

The history of the Artic National Wildlife Refuge can be traced back to 1960. On December 6th, the Eisenhower administration signed Public Land order No. 2214 which established the 8.9 million acre Artic National Wildlife range. In 1980, Congress passed and Jimmy Carter signed the landmark Alaska National Interest Lands Conservative Act (ANILCA) that increased the protected area to 19.8 million acres, renamed the area to Artic National Wildlife Refuge, and established the original 8.6 million acres as wilderness. However, in the process of getting this act passed, the oil industry lobby succeeded in having the Senate refuge to designate the Coastal Plain as Wilderness. Section 1002 of the ANILCA legislation informed the

There has been one thing quite a few people tend to skip over in the local newspapers and on the news. It is known as drilling, but that is not much of a concern. Why would anyone care? It means nothing to them anyway. To the animals and ecosystems, it does. Pretty soon dozens of wildlife will be endangered. What they call home will be long gone. That will be placed in the past and drilling will take the ecosystem's place in Alaska's Coastal Plain. Something needs to be done now before the creatures lose their only home.

The battle over drilling in the ANWR to decrease our dependence on foreign oil has been debated since the park first opened in 1960 during the Eisenhower administration; however, it has reached a new peak with the recent terrorist attacks and the very pro-oil administration. With both our President and Vice President being former oilmen, the opening of the ANWR has been proposed (and heavily fought for) in their new energy bill (Kadlec). The section, which the Bush administration wishes to open, is located on the coastal plain and designated as Area 1002 encompassing 1.5 million acres (McCarthy). In 1998 the United States Geological Survey did a study of the land and found that it would produce an estimated 3 billion barrels to 16 billion barrels, barely a dent in the United States 7.1 billion barrel yearly consumption (NRDC).

Congress would have liked to time the drilling in ANWR in correlation with the highest world market prices for oil. Since those prices are so hard to predict, America feels like now is as good of time as any. Elliott Negin, spokesman for the Natural Resources Defense Council in Washington, said “the oil in ANWR will have no effect on the global price of oil because it is to small an amount.” Even pro-drilling lobbyists agree that the amount of oil in ANWR would not affect America’s oil problems. Why then do they continue to lobby pro-drilling in the refuge?

The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, comprising more than nineteen million acres in the northern corner of Alaska, is unique and one of the largest units of the National Wildlife system. The Arctic Refuge has long been recognized as an unparalleled place of natural beauty and ecological importance. The Arctic Refuge was established to conserve fish and wildlife populations and habitats in their natural diversity, as well as provide the opportunity for local residents to continue their subsistence way of life. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which

Oil spills can impact the environment greatly. Since the oil boats are on the ocean if the break and start to leak it goes into the ocean where it can harm the ocean and those that make their home in it. “That spill caused an immediate and significant impact to the ecosystem, with sightings of birds and turtles washed up on beaches covered with oil, as well as an increase in the deaths of other marine life” (Sinclair, 2017). The oil spill in 2010 in the Gulf of Mexico was the biggest since Deepwater Horizon. It caused harm to the ecosystem around it because technology came in so it could pump oil out of the ground under the ocean. There is no way to know the impact that oil spill and really every oil spill has had on the marine ecosystem.