U.S. Senate defeats Bush’s energy plan
The plan called for opening the
Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
for oil drilling; activist and
others continue debate
Aimee Rudin
City/State Politics Reporter
The Arctic National Wildlife
Refuge has been called both “an area
of flat, white nothingness,” and the
“jewel of America’s refuge system.”
Located in the Northeast comer of
Alaska, it is an area most Americans
will not see and is inhabited by ani
mals with which most people are un
familiar. It has been shrouded by
controversy since its creation in De
cember 1960.
Underneath the frozen tundra of
the arctic coastal plain lies one of the
largest untouched supplies of crude
oil in the United States, according to
U.S. Interior Secretary Gale Norton.
The area, called Area 1002 by devel
opers, is also the principal calving
ground for the porcupine caribou
herd, the second largest herd in the
United States.
Big oil companies have lobbied
for drilling access in the refuge, and
environmental activists have ral
lied for the area’s protection. The
controversy has made numerous
trips to the national capitol, where
it has been piggybacked onto ener
gy bills, discussed by fundraisers
and looked at through a U.S. Geo
logical Survey.
Recendy, legislation to develop the
area was blocked. On March 19, the
U.S. Senate voted 52-48 against Presi
dent George W. Bush’s energy plan
largely because a provision in the plan
called for the opening of ANWR to oil
drilling. However, the area is still being
considered for oil development.
Proponents of drilling said ANWR
contains roughly 16 billion barrels of
oil, equal to about 30 years of Mid
dle East imports.
“The coastal plain is this nation’s
single greatest prospect for onshore
oil,” Norton said in a hearing earlier
this month.
But, according to the U.S. Geologi
cal Survey the amount of oil that
could be recovered economically is
about 3.2 billion barrels, and even at
the peak of production — the year
2027 — oil from ANWR would only
contribute about two percent of the
oil Americans would use in that year.
Currently, the United States con
sumes about 20 million barrels of oil a
day, according to a 2001 report by the
U.S. Office of Transportation Tech
nologies. At this rate, the 3.2 billion
barrels of oil thought to be available in
ANWR would last the United States
about 160 days. Many legislators feel
this number is not large enough to
justify disrupting the refuge.
U.S. Rep. Ed Markey D-Mass.,
said ANWR is the “wrong place” to
attempt to solv^ the nation’s ener
gy problems. X
“The value of ANWR should never
be measured in barrels of oil,” Markey
said in a statement. “It is priceless, a
national environmental treasure that
should never be sacrificed. ”
Area 1002 was considered for pos
sible oil and gas exploration during
Areas of current and potential oil development
Addle Lennox Emerald
the Garter administration, but was
not approved for drilling. It is home
to more than 100 species of wildlife
including caribou, polar bears, musk
oxen and wolves. It also serves as
part of the migratory pattern for 160
species of birds.
Drilling proponents, including
Alaska Gov. Frank Murkowski and
Interior Secretary Gale Norton, said
it would be possible to drill in Area
1002 without disturbing wildlife.
Norton pointed to a recent survey of
the Central Arctic caribou herd, which
said the herd is at its largest size ever.
“The fact that the herd has grown
steadily over the past 25 years while
energy production has been ongoing
on Alaska’s North Slope is a solid
sign,” Norton said.
ANWR advocates argue that the
size of the herd is not representa
tive of the effect of drilling on
wildlife. Members of Defenders for
Wildlife said drilling and oil trans
portation may lead to oil spills,
which endanger wildlife. According
to the group, the 1989 Exxon
Valdez spill contributed to the
deaths of thousands of animals and
continues to affect wildlife popula
tions today.
“Oil and pristine environments
simply do not mix,” Peter Van Tuyn,
litigation director for Trustees for
Alaska said.
Contact the senior reporter
at aimeerudin@dailyemerald.com.
Low coffee prices
fuel coca farming
in Colombian areas
Gary Marx
Chicago Tribune (KRT)
ANDES, Colombia — With coffee
prices near historic lows, the eco
nomic crisis facing thousands of
small farmers in this picturesque re
gion also is feeding Colombia’s civil
war and could threaten an intensive
U.S.-funded antinarcotics program.
Perched high on lush mountain
slopes and intersected by rivers, An
des and the surrounding area stand
on the edge of Colombia’s once
prosperous coffee region. The crop
has provided a steady income to
generations of small farmers and
migrant laborers while satisfying the
needs of American, European and
other coffee drinkers.
But a flood of cheap coffee from
Vietnam and other countries, com
bined with weak worldwide demand
for Colombia’s high-grade beans,
has sent many local farmers into
bankruptcy and pushed unemploy
ment above 20 percent, officials say.
The crisis has made it easier for
Colombia’s leftist guerrillas and
right-wing paramilitary forces to
push into the coffee-growing region
and recruit the growing number of
unemployed youths, according to
coffee farmers and Andes officials.
It also has caused some farmers
to abandon coffee and plant coca,
the key ingredient for cocaine.
“A family that is going to lose
their farm is going to grow illegal
crops to save it,” said Jaime Restre
po, mayor of Andes, which is home
to about 3,100 small coffee farms.
“Without a good price for coffee, it’s
a survival economy, and one way to
survive is coca.”
The crisis has vast repercussions
for the United States, which has
poured $2 billion into the fight against
drug trafficking and more recently
into a war against armed insurgents, ,
So far, only a fraction of the na
tion’s 500,000 coffee growers have
switched to growing coca, which
earns far more per acre than coffee,
officials say.
But some experts warn that if the
trend accelerates it could under
mine a U.S.-funded fumigation pro
gram that so far this year has eradi
cated more than 90,000 of acres of
coca and a smaller amount of opium
poppies in Colombia.
Government officials here sup
port eradication because both left
ists and right-wing groups use drug
trafficking to fund their insurgen
cies, though the efforts have
sparked protests from peasant
groups who complain they have no
other way to make a living.
The gpvemment has warned farm
ers not to grow illegal crops and is in
discussions with the main coffee feder
ation to begin a fumigation campaign.
“Our policy is zero tolerance,”
Colombian Vice President Francis
co Santos said in an interview.
“What we cannot allow is for more
coca to grow in Colombia. It’s a na
tional security issue.”
Gabriel Silva, head of the Nation
al Federation of Coffee Growers of
Colombia, a powerful group that
markets Colombian coffee, said he
supports fumigation as long as it af
fects only illegal crops. He said erad
ication in coffee areas would be
done manually rather than through
aerial fumigation, which is less ac
curate and sometimes destroys food
and other crops.
“Anyone who makes a pact with the
devil has to pay for the consequences,”
Silva said. “What we need to do is to
avoid that the consequences fall on le
gitimate coffee growers.”
© 2003, Chicago Tribune. Distributed by
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