op-ed

Caribou: Their Ecosystem or Ours?
Allie Weaver-
There has been an ongoing debate about the drilling on the Alaskan territories. These territories are called the ANWR territories or the Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge. After performing consistent and extensive research on the benefits and risks of drilling in this territory, it has not only come to my attention but it has been made completely apparent to me that it is necessary to drill in these territories. Now in all fairness I think it is necessary that you know I am very environmentally conscious person with every intention of going green that there is. However I am also aware of how crucial it is for the United States to separate themselves from foreign energy resources. Now in regards to the environmental issues at hand, the harming of the caribou and other wildlife has been mentioned as a downfall to the drilling in these territories. However, it is important to know that this drilling exploration is only scheduled to be during the winter months so that the sensitive tundra will be protected, and the wildlife will be at a lesser risk. There are also going to be strict rules to protect streams, rivers, springs, and wetlands. Now as for the caribou, everyone seems to be worried about the welfare of the caribou. It is important to reference Prudhoe Bay, which is an oil base in Alaska that, according to the New York Times in 2006, produced up to 400,000 barrels of oil a day. I think it is also important to mention that Prudhoe Bay is also the largest oil field in the United States. When the Prudhoe Bay territory was opened for oil drilling, the caribou were also a great concern to the environmentalist population, however the number of caribou in Prudhoe Bay actually increased after the opening of the Prudhoe Bay oil rig. Now since I have mentioned the largest oil field in the United States I think now is a good time to mention the size of the Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge. According to the Strategic Center for Natural Gas and Oil the ANWR territory is about the size of South Carolina. The proposed area for drilling in

caption for photo
The blue area represents the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, the red is the Northern Coastal Plain.
the Coastal Plain is about one-fifth the size of Washington DC’s Dulles International Airport. For those of you who are more number oriented the ANWR territory is a total of 19million acres, the area that is being proposed for drilling is 2,000 acres. This is an incredibly small fraction of land in comparison to the size of the refuge as the whole. The U.S. Department of the Interior stated that in 1980, President Carter and Congress actually set aside 1.5 million acres of the refuge for potential oil development. This means that this land has had been a prospect for oil drilling territory for a long period of time. Some environmentalists argue that there will not even be a significant amount of oil found once the drilling actually begins. Well, I hate to impose more numbers upon you but it is estimated, according to the Strategic Center for Natural Gas and Oil that ANWR can produce more that 150 billion cubic feet of natural gas per year, which was almost the actual volume of gas consumed by the state of South Carolina in the year 2000. It has also been shown from extensive research, that ANWR could produce greater than a million barrels of oil per day, which is more than enough to replace the U.S. imports from Iraq. It has always been the goal of the government to be a secure and stable nation, and relying on our own soil and breaking away from foreign dependency is a great way to continue our reputation as the most powerful nation in the world. A great amount of concern has been rested on that of the Alaskan citizens and how drilling in these territories would affect the lives of the locals. BBC’s Richard Lister went to a remote part of the Alaskan Arctic and talked with the locals to get their opinion. He found that the opposition for drilling in ANWR still rests among conservation groups and not so much with the locals. “Much of their income now comes from taxes on the oil companies, and I found few people who opposed new onshore drilling-even in ANWR”, says Lister. Annual polls from the Center of Natural Gas and Oil also show that over 75% of the Alaskan citizens support opening ANWR. The Alaskan state legislature also passed a resolution supporting ANWR development by sixty votes to zero, so it is extremely apparent that it is not only the locals that feel like ANWR will support Alaska’s economy. It is essential to point out that the media and the conservative groups that are trying to fight for the preservation of the ANWR territory present their information in the presentation of beautiful mountains and streams and wildlife leading us to believe that this is exactly where the drilling is going to take place. However, it is absolutely crucial to understand that these tiny 2,000 acres where this drilling would be taking place is in an already developed area. There are already streets and buildings and locals thriving in this area. So sorry to disappoint you but there is going to have to be a different approach besides making the oil drillers look like the big bad wildlife destroyers. The area in which drilling would be taking place is already industrialized. In order to make a decision on this topic you must step back and evaluate the facts. Evaluate that by the year 2020 imports are supposed to rise from about 50 percent of U.S. consumption today to 62 percent. The environment and wildlife are extremely important but if we cannot take care of ourselves and our ecosystem, how can we be expected to take care of a whole other ecosystem.