Oct. 19, 2005 – Legislators may take a step closer to approving drilling for oil and natural gas in the Alaskan wilderness today as members of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hold a session aimed at reconciling differences between the Senate and House appropriations bills passed this spring.
- Fight Resumes Over Drilling in Alaskan Reserve (Feb 4, 2005)
- Both Sides Prepare for More Conflict Over Arctic Oil Drilling (Mar 25, 2005)
- Arctic Drilling Provision Finds New Home in Energy Bill (Apr 18, 2005)
Since 1980, federal law has prevented drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), but lawmakers included a provision knocking down the 25-year-old prohibition as part of the narrowly approved $14 trillion spending package passed in April.
Friday, the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee released a draft proposal for selling drilling leases in the Refuge. The proposal projects $2.5 billion in revenue from two resource-exploitation lease deals, half of which would go to the Alaskan state government. The leases would be settled before the 2010 fiscal year ends.
According to a statement prepared for the meeting, Senator Pete Domenici (R-New Mexico) will tie destruction caused by recent hurricanes and rising fuel prices to the need to open the wilderness area up to exploration and drilling by oil and gas companies.
Environmental groups oppose opening the 19.6 million-acre coastal preserve to drilling, saying that development will irreparably harm the ecosystem and disrupt the lives of native inhabitants. The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is the largest unspoiled land mass in the country.
"The drive to drill the Arctic Refuge is about oil company profits and lifting barriers to future exploration in protected lands, pure and simple," the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) said. "It has nothing to do with energy independence. Opening the Arctic Refuge to energy development is about transferring our public estate into corporate hands, so it can be liquidated for a quick buck."
The US Energy Information Administration estimates that there are between 5.7 billion and 16 billion barrels of recoverable oil in the protected Alaskan refuge. It will take a decade or more before companies reach full production, according to the most recent agency report.
Environmentalists have long argued that the amount of oil potentially recovered in the refuge will make only a tiny dent in the nation’s oil needs. The US consumes about 7.3 billion barrels of oil annually.
"We have a moral responsibility to save wild places like the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for future generations," said a Defenders of Wildlife statement asking concerned citizens to contact lawmakers and urge them to oppose ANWR drilling.
In addition to Domenici’s testimony today, the Energy and Natural Resources Committee will hear from several energy industry representatives and the head of the New York State Energy Research and Development Agency. No conservation experts are scheduled to speak.
