Perhaps no environmental battle in the 1990s demonstrates the need for a long range US energy strategy better than the fight over Alaska's National Arctic Wildlife Refuge. This beautiful area, on Alaska's north slope (near the present Prudoe Bay oil fields) is located in northeastern Alaska, north of the arctic circle.
Oil companies want to drill for oil on the northern coastal plain of the Refuge. The area is presently a wonderful Arctic ecosystem supporting caribou, wolves, muskoxen, grizzlies, and migratory birds. Instead of conserving energy, the oil companies say, "let's develop the coastal plain of the Refuge." Besides the disruption of both caribou and grizzly habitat, more drilling and oil production will inevitably lead to more oil spills such as the Exxon Valdez disaster of 1989.
Sen. Johnston, LA, introduced a bill to let the oil companies drill on the coastal plain, just before the Valdez oil spill. During the public outcry over the destruction in Prince William Sound, the oil-development bill was quietly withdrawn, but oil companies and their anti-environmental politicians keep trying, with new bills introduced in 1991 to open the Refuge to drilling. Some reports show the present Prudoe Bay oil fields feeding the Alaskan pipeline could run out after another 5-10 years. The oil companies now want to drill in the refuge, allowing them continued use of their pipeline. During the many years of pipeline operation, the oil companies have long since recovered their construction costs. To protect the remaining areas on the North Slope, the pipeline should be shut down and removed, once the Prudoe Bay fields run dry.
Unless this nation develops an energy conservation ethic and the political will to control the oil companies, this beautiful arctic wilderness will be sacrificed to short-term energy interests. Once America adopts the energy efficiency measures needed to prevent global warming, there will be no need to drill in this fragile coastal plain area!
Write your senators and representative today. Tell them you want the Arctic National Refuge protected forever from drilling, and ask them to support bills S 39 and HR 39, which will do this. Both S 39, introduced by Sen. William Roth (DE), and HR 39 introduced by Rep. Morris Udall (AZ), would make the coastal plain of the Arctic Refuge a wilderness area. ***
