Senators introduce bill to declare ANWR coast a wilderness

THE SOUNDER STAFF

November 26, 2007 at 8:25AM AKST

Legislation would block oil, gas development

Sen. Joseph Lieberman and 25 of his fellow senators introduced legislation on Nov. 7 that would designate the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge as a wilderness.

Wilderness designation would permanently protect the area, placing it off limits to oil and gas development while continuing to allow vital subsistence uses.

"The development of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge would destroy the last land of our people," said Robert Thompson, member of REDOIL and an Inupiaq Eskimo, subsistence hunter, carver, grandfather and wildlife guide from Kaktovik.

"Virtually the entire North Slope is already available for oil production. We need our land and our ocean to preserve our culture and protect our way of life. Our way of life shouldn't have to compete with roads, oilrigs and pipelines. Why do we need to upset the remaining untouched lands when people are depending on them for their livelihoods?"

The announcement by Lieberman, an independent Democrat representing Connecticut, has drawn support from Arctic community members and conservation organizations along with strong objection from the state's government and congressional delegation.

On Nov. 10, Gov. Sarah Palin sent a letter to members of the U.S. Senate and the Bush administration advocating defeat of the latest version of a bill that would prohibit oil and natural gas development in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

The governor criticized the bill as it would effectively ban oil and gas exploration in the most promising unexplored regions in North America – the coastal plain of ANWR.

In the letter, Palin states that national energy policy must include a variety of resources.

"I don't see national energy policy as an either/or proposition," Palin said.

"Rather, we need to develop secure domestic sources of conventional energy, such as oil and natural gas, while also researching and developing alternative and renewable energy. Alaska is ready, willing, and able to assist the nation in addressing our acute and expanding energy needs."

Palin reminded senators that opening ANWR to oil and gas exploration would reduce U.S. dependence on foreign sources of oil, increase federal revenues and create hundreds of thousands of jobs.

Sens. Ted Stevens and Lisa Murkowski and Rep. Don Young, all R-Alaska, released a statement in response to Lieberman's newly introduced bill to designate Alaska's coastal plain as wilderness.

"With the price of oil approaching $100 per barrel and with our energy dependence on hostile foreign nations at a record high, now is not the time to cut our country off from the resources held in Alaska's coastal plain," the delegation noted.

"This area has the largest untapped domestic oil field in the United States and would provide our nation with a million barrels of oil per day for at least three decades. Instead of blocking resource development, Congress must increase our domestic production of energy," said the statement, released on Nov. 7.

"ANWR is nearly 20 million acres. Energy production would be limited to 2,000 acres – 0.01 percent of the entire refuge. In addition, development poses no threat to wildlife. Anti-development advocates claim that the Prudhoe Bay oil fields have had serious impacts on wildlife. That is not true.

"After 30 years of development of oil fields at Prudhoe Bay and surrounding areas, wildlife has not been adversely impacted. Populations of caribou, grizzly bears, polar bears, arctic foxes, and musk ox have all remained stable or increased during oil exploration and development."