The Communique

Issue date: 4/29/04 Section: Opinion

Kelli Kennon: News Editor

Reserves of between 1.9 and 9.4 billion barrels of oil are believed to exist in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), with other deposits located in the nearby National Petroleum Reserve, according to anwr.org.

Although there are many negative effects to drilling for natural resources in the ANWR, many political leaders are pushing to open the land to drilling. One who is considering is President George W. Bush. President Bush has repeatedly encouraged expanding domestic energy development by drilling on federal lands, primarily in the ANWR.

Bush and Interior Secretary Gale Norton argue today's modern technology will reduce the "footprint" of drilling by 64 percent and have made proposals to drill for natural resources.

These proposals will still take two to eight years to implement and if approved will take up to 15 more years before oil and gas from the ANWR reaches the U.S. market.

Also, assuming the proposals approved, decisions regarding which lands will remain fully protected and which will be released for development must be made. This includes how to modify the Forest-Service land-use, which restricts energy development in national parks and whether to construct a pipeline to deliver gas from Alaska's North Slope.

In addition many of the researchers who concluded the negative effects of drilling on the environment also encountered positive effects of drilling for the economy and the like.

As noted by anwr.org, only eight percent of the land would be considered for exploration, which leaves 17.5 million acres of the ANWR to stay closed to any type of development. Of that eight percent (1.5 million acres) only 2,000 acres would be effected at all.

Also, research in 1995 concluded federal revenues would be enhanced by $2.6 billion as a result of oil development, not to mention the between 250,000 and 735,000 job opportunities that would be created.

As noted by anwr.org this is a great chance for America to have a "major discovery." The North Slope oil fields, where we receive 25 percent of our oil, are in a decline and imported oil is expensive, costing the U.S. more than $55.1 billion a year.

What is also interesting to consider is more than 75 percent of Alaskans support exploration and production in the ANWR, which includes the Inupiat Eskimos who live in and near the ANWR.

Think of the jobs, the opportunities, the time and the revenue that encompass this conflict.

I do not argue we should explore and produce oil from the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge immediately, or ever for that matter. All I argue is that we analyze the entire situation before us before making a decision of whether drilling in the Refuge is "right" or "wrong."

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