6 • The Southwest Portland Post
Dear EarthTalk: What’s the
latest in the battle over whether
or not to permanently protect the
Arctic National Wildlife Refuge?
The issue seems to come up every
few years around election season
but I haven’t heard anything
about it lately.
– Gerald LaPlante, Boston, MA
The Arctic National Wildlife
Refuge, located on Alaska’s
northeast coast, has been a
conservation-versus-development
battleground for decades.
The 1.5 million acre coastal
plain at the foot of the Brooks
Range where the land meets the
Arctic Ocean is the crown jewel
of the 19 million acre refuge—
and a magnet for iconic Alaskan
wildlife like caribou, polar bears
and wolverines.
But oil interests say the coastal
plain is covering huge oil and
natural gas reserves and should
be drilled for the sake of the U.S.
and Alaskan economies.
Some 250 wildlife species
consider ANWR home, while
a n o t h e r 1 8 0 s p e c i e s o f b i rd s
migrate through every year (from
all 50 states and beyond).
The coastal plain itself is a
birthing ground for the region’s
ic on i c car i bou herd a n d a l s o
FEATURES
provides safe haven and sustenance
for hundreds of other marine and
terrestrial species.
Environmental advocacy groups
cite studies showing that industrial
operations would deter animals
from the area, robbing them of one
of the last protected areas to raise
their young.
Beyond biological pragmatism,
conservationists argue that
opening the refuge up to drilling
operations would set a dangerous
precedent, potentially opening
the door for similar pressures on
federal wilderness areas and even
in national parks.
Some of the key defenders
of ANWR include the Alaska
Wilderness League, Defenders of
Wildlife, EarthJustice and others.
The other side champions
the economic potential of the
re g i o n . A l a s k a G o v e r n o r B i l l
Walker has strongly supported
drilling operations in ANWR, a
stance shared by Alaska’s federal
representatives.
A 2007 Yale study showed the
potential for $374 billion dollars
of oil beneath ANWR. This would
be vital income for the state
government, which relies heavily
on oil and gas tax streams for its
budget.
Alaska politicians say they need
the extra revenue to pay to relocate
climate refugees from villages
inundated by rising seas. “We are
in a significant fiscal challenge,”
Walker told the BBC. “We have
villages that are washing away
because of changes in the climate.”
Nationally, supporters of drilling
also cite economics: Every barrel of
oil produced domestically puts tax
money in the national coffers and
creates local jobs.
October 2016
Senate Democrats Michael Bennet and Ed Markey introduced legislation last December
calling for permanently designating the most sensitive sections of the Arctic National
Wildlife Refuge as wilderness. (Photo courtesy U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service)
Shell has been the major
commercial supporter of opening
the refuge, though 78 percent of
Alaskans share the sentiment.
The state legislature has passed
legislation opening ANWR to oil
exploration—but it’s not theirs to
decide since it’s on federal land.
But that doesn’t mean ANWR
is safe from development. Inside
the Washington, D.C. beltway,
the Republican-dominated House
passed a dozen resolutions in
support of opening it up to oil
exploration in the last session
alone—although Democratic
filibuster efforts were able to block
any such legislation.
Meanwhile, Senate Democrats
Michael Bennet (Colorado), Ed
Markey (Massachusetts) and 32
Democratic co-sponsors introduced
legislation last December calling
for permanently designating
the most sensitive sections of
ANWR as wilderness, off limits to
development.
With bigger fish to fry right now,
lawmakers might not consider the
legislation until a new president is
in office, but backers of protecting
ANWR can urge their senators to
support the bill via an easy-to-
send customizable online form
letter courtesy of the non-profit
EarthJustice.
Contacts: Arctic National Wildlife
Refuge, www.fws.gov/refuge/
arctic; Alaska Wilderness League,
www.alaskawild.org; Defenders
of Wildlife, www.defenders.org;
EarthJustice, www.earthjustice.org.
EarthTalk® is produced by Roddy
Scheer & Doug Moss and is a
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Excellent SW Portland references