Oil Drilling in Alaska WildernessEssay title: Oil Drilling in Alaska WildernessOil Drilling in the Alaskan Wildlife RefugesAmerica Should Reject the Oil Businesses Plan andPermanently Protect The Arctic National Wildlife RefugeThe Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, comprising more than nineteen million acres in the northern corner of Alaska, is unique and one of the largest units of the National Wildlife system. The Arctic Refuge has long been recognized as an unparalleled place of natural beauty and ecological importance. The Arctic Refuge was established to conserve fish and wildlife populations and habitats in their natural diversity, as well as provide the opportunity for local residents to continue their subsistence way of life. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which manages the Refuge, calls it “the only conservation system unit that protects, in an undisturbed condition, a complete spectrum of the arctic ecosystems in North America.” (‘Alaska Wild’)
The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is currently under construction.
[p>What to Do on the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge]
This site contains a summary of a series of documents in Alaska related to the ongoing oil drilling operation in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, including:
” Oil-drilling Alaska Wilderness and Arctic National Wildlife Refuge documents for each side of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. • Arctic National Wildlife Refuge documents for each side of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. 1 The Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Agency , the agency that determines the environmental status of oil and natural gas deposits across the U.S. (see the EPA’s “State of the Climate” page for more on this aspect of a range of energy policy issues).․ (Washington, D.C.: American Geophysical Union, 2009). The National Ecological Service (NEPS). The National Ecological Service is responsible for determining the conservation status of many of the world’s natural resources.‡ (Montreal, Quebec, Canada: Canada Nationale University, 2011).
The most comprehensive Alaska-related document published so far on this topic features two reports, one on the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and the other on the Arctic Coast Guard, which has been selected jointly.
The Arctic Coast Guard (ACGL) has reported that it has determined that two small rigs (3 of which carry more than a thousand barrels per day) carried approximately 1,120 barrels per day of oil from a shallow seabed to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge within the past 12 months. The ACGL reports that drilling began in April 2007. It is the largest oil-bearing rig on the refuge.
The ACGL report is also available by clicking here.
You can learn more about the ACGL’s decision regarding the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge by clicking here.
The state of Alaska has issued a number of letters informing that oil-drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge was halted, except for a short period of time on 12 April 2013 under the jurisdiction of the state’s Department of Economic Development and Economic Development (DEDES).
The National Park Service has issued a letter on 21 April that states:
The Northwest Alaska National Wildlife Refuge is a seabed resource for oil and natural gas activity in the Northern Hemisphere and we are concerned that the oil and gas activities in the refuge have compromised natural habitat and environmental protection that has been established because of the large number of barrels carried to the Refuge by the Deepwater Horizon drilling rigs.‡ (possible reasons for discontinuing the oil and gas drilling in the refuge).
The first round of new regulations from Interior Secretary Sally Jewell, and followed by an announcement of a new national drilling program on Monday, December 26, 2015, were announced on the state Department of the Interior website:
According to a draft of the new regulations, Alaska has already approved additional activity and will continue to make it clear that the proposed expansion of oil and gas activities within the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and in the coastal states of Western Canada will not take place within the period of 60 days after an OCCE notification from a Bureau of Land Management or other designated agency is issued, at which point Alaska citizens can begin drilling on their own property.
According to the National Wildlife Refuge, in 2014, there were 8,935 oil spills on reserves, and this number will continue to grow.
The last update to the regulations came with the release of another draft in 2017, this time issued by the Department of Natural Resources. It said that the government was committed to “reimplementing the Alaska Coast Guard’s current and required pipeline construction requirements and developing the necessary safety equipment for oil off the refuge surface in order to ensure effective safety and compliance with the Oil and Gas Management Act.” The
As early as the 1930’s, leading biologists and conservationists were captivated by the scenic beauty and wildlife diversity of Alaska’s northeastern Arctic. In the early 1950’s, a survey was conducted by the National Park Service to determine which Alaskan lands merited protection. This northeast corner was deemed, “the finest park prospect ever seen.” After years of political battles and activism, supporters of the Arctic Refuge achieved victory. On December 6, 1960, during the Eisenhower Administration, Interior
Secretary Fred Seaton signed Public Land Order No. 2214. This order established the 8.9 million acre Arctic National Wildlife Range to protect the wildlife, wilderness and recreational values. This order closed the area to mineral entry. Twenty years later, Congress passed and President Jimmy Carter signed the Alaskan National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA). This more than doubled the original size to 19.8 million acres and established 8.6 million acres of the original area as wilderness (‘Alaska Wild’).
This wildlife sanctuary is an awe-inspiring natural wonder. It contains an expanse of tundra with many marshes and lagoons with rivers situated between foothills of the Brooks Range and the wide, icy waters of the Beaufort Sea. Environmentalists said that this area “is the most biologically productive part of the Arctic Refuge for wildlife and is the center if wildlife activity.” The importance of these resources is not measurable. The Arctic is home to such animals as caribou, polar bears, grizzly bears, musk oxen, whales, wolves and snow geese. This area is full of wildflowers and contains water of excellent, unpolluted quality and quantity. The Arctic Ocean costal plain is an area critical to the survival of many birds and mammals (‘Alaska Wild’).
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To understand what it means to be a free-range native, you have to understand the context of your ecological relationship. If you like fish, seafood, bison, elk or moose, you do not belong in an ecosystem in which you are denied the ability to live well and the freedom to flourish in a climate of constant threat to your health and survival. Because of this ecological relationship – if you are not part of it, you can still be a free-range native at all!
So, let’s talk about what it means to be a free-range native now:
‡ We were in this area of the world in 2001-2006 and we are now living in a climate of rapid increase in temperature and sea level rise. The current rapid increase of temperature and sea level increase by 2 degrees Celsius/century will cause our species to die at a rate that is expected to exceed the rate of natural change. We are now living in a planet where we are at risk of extinction.
‡ But the situation that is unfolding around the world is changing rapidly. There are hundreds of thousands of species of animals living in this area. It is not simply going to be that we have large herds, and the animals may die fast. However, we are living in a climate of rapid increase that is very uncertain. We are facing a global warming trend. So where is the scientific consensus around our population size and the availability of food items, for example, as well as in terms of population density? The scientific consensus will dictate which type of livestock you choose, and how much of what you choose to eat.
‡ We are at a period of rapid rapid increase in climate change. For this and other reasons, animals that do not need to die immediately in order to feed themselves and their livestock do not have the right to starve to death, so you are not being given the right to rely on humans for their survival. However, on the other hand, wild birds and other native species such as moose and elk and animals like bears, wolves and snow geese can survive, as well as those that have the right to stay indoors in the wild because of the right to use wild resources for their survival (‘Trencairn Wild’).
” We are on a fast transition path when it comes to animals and we are facing an international threat to our survival by the global agricultural supply chain. The planet revolves around food and natural resources such as land for food, but we can also use them and those natural resources in a much more complex way. This means the global market is rapidly moving towards animals, and that is exactly what we feel it means for the future of our species.
That’s a huge transition time. With this in mind, if you
With all the good the Arctic National Wildlife refuge has to offer as a safe haven for endangered animals and plant life, comes the burden of sitting on an oil reserve. As noted earlier in 1980, under President Carter, the protected area was doubled. However, the oil industry lobbies succeeded in having the U.S. Senate refuse to designate the critically important Costal Plain as wilderness. Instead, Section 1002 of the Alaskan National Interest Lands Conservation Act legislation directed the Department of Interior
to prepare a report on oil and gas potential in the Costal Plain, and the effects the oil development would have on the region’s natural resources. The Costal Plain area is today often referred to as the “1002 area.” The ANILCA legislation clearly stated the 1.5
million acres Costal Plain would remain protected unless Congress specifically authorizes development (‘Alaska Wild’).In the 1990’s, the Arctic Refuge came under attack from multi-national oil companies and legislators. An attempt was made in 1995 to allow exploration and drilling in the Costal Plain as a budget bill. President Bill Clinton refused to sign the budget bill until this legislation was removed. At the turn of the century, the Arctic Refuge and its Costal Plain were still seen as a refuge for wildlife rather than a new home for the oil industry.
With the past presidential campaign, George W. Bush vowed to open area 1002 to drilling. Now he is in office, along with Interior Secretary, Gail Norton, who shares his view. Legislation was introduced in the House and Senate in early March 2001 to open the plain to drilling. Because of its enormous potential and the vital need for domestic sources of oil and gas, the Department of Interior recommends that the Congress enact
Legislation