Term Paper on "Arguing Against Drilling for Oil in Alaska to Protect the Natural Wildlife"

Term Paper 8 pages (2760 words) Sources: 8

[EXCERPT] . . . .

drilling for oil in Alaska to protect the natural wildlife

Arguments against Drilling for Oil in Alaska

As energy costs continue to increase, the demand for domestic sources of oil has become more pronounced than ever. Indeed, the burgeoning powerhouses of China and India are placing an enormous strain on the world's oil supplies, and many Americans are facing some harsh realities at the gas pump today. In this environment, developing and exploiting the country's domestic natural resources appears to just make good sense, and the enormous resources available in Alaska in particular appear to represent a short-term solution to this growing demand for oil and gas today. Nevertheless, while oil and gas are fungible products that have known alternatives, the unique qualities of the environmentally fragile Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska are not, and such exploitation today to solve a long-term problem are misguided and pose a significant threat to the viability of this vast region for generations of Americans to come. To determine what both sides have to say about this issue, this paper provides a review of the peer-reviewed and scholarly literature concerning further exploitation of Alaska's oil and gas reserves and its concomitant environmental impact, followed by a summary of the research and important findings in the conclusion.

Review and Discussion

The long gas lines of the 1980s were just a fading memory when the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 took place. In response to these attacks and based on a growing perception among Americans that the country's dependence on Middle Eastern oil was contributing to the nation's problems, there has been a groundswell of support for developing domestic sources of oil. As a result, many observers are pointing to the known oil reserves and potential reserves available in the state of Alaska as a solution to this energy crisis. According to Herndon, "In the far northeastern corner of Alaska remains the last great wilderness in the United States. Calling this area the last great wilderness is a statement not made lightly; people have been calling it that for almost 50 years. The name of the place is so often mentioned that even the most ardent sociophobe has probably heard of it: the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge" (72).

In his aptly entitled essay, "Like Wilderness, but Need Oil? Securing America's Future Energy Act Puts Little between Accident-Prone Oil Companies and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge," Stanke (2002) reports that the U.S. Senate narrowly rejected a bill known as "Securing America's Future Energy," or SAFE, that would have lifted the oil drilling ban on an ecologically critical section of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) in May 2002; nevertheless, there remains a fundamental desire on the part of many Americans to become more energy self-sufficient and the abundant oil reserves available in the ANWR suggest that this type of legislation is not a matter of if, but of when. For example, Hertsgaard (2003) reports that, "Even as environmental groups fundraise and Democratic senators threaten to filibuster over Alaska, the [current Bush] Administration has pursued a less-noticed but equally destructive aspect of its energy plan: encouraging drilling and mining of millions of acres of public land in the West, including national monument areas. Court rulings have blocked much of the Administration's efforts -- so far" (15).

Indeed, in the wake of September 11 and rising energy prices, the call is being made to use the nation's own resources to their best advantage. According to Dunn (2001), "The most controversial element of the new Bush strategy involves the opening of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling and development. Dubbed 'the Serengeti of Alaska' by biologists, the refuge is North America's most diverse, intact, naturally functioning community of arctic and subarctic ecosystems" (emphasis added) (2). Likewise, Stanke notes that, "Questions of national security were bandied about in reference to the ANWR oil issue at the time of SAFE's passage [by the U.S. House of Representatives] before September 11, 2001. Such concerns took on increased urgency following the terrorist attacks, which seem to have been motivated partly by the oil-guarding U.S. military presence in the Middle East" (905).

The U.S. Congress established the ANWR in 1980 to prevent further development of the oil and gas reserves on approximately 8 million acres by declaring this region a wilderness; an additional 9.5 million acres was placed off-limits to exploitation by declaring them a wildlife refuge (16 U.S.C., Section 3101). In this regard, Grover (1998) notes that, "The Refuge, as ANWR is sometimes called, currently enjoys the relative protection of federal law. Since 1957, the United States Department of the Interior has exercised primary administrative authority over most of the land comprising modern-day ANWR. This fact has meant a great deal to people who care about the Refuge" (1169).

When this law was passed, the Congress decided to wait to determine if the 1.55 million acres of ANWR's coastal plain should also be designated a wilderness pending the outcome of additional research concerning the environmental impact of oil drilling on the Alaskan Northern Slope (Stanke 905). According to Herndon, "Most of the original Arctic National Wildlife Range was subsequently designated wilderness, but under the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA), part of it was placed in a sort of legal limbo, to further study its oil and gas potential" (72). In this regard, Stanke points out that, "Congress included section 1002 of the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA), which requires the Interior Secretary to thoroughly research the environmental ramifications of developing the ANWR Coastal Plain, to help Congress decide whether to permit oil and gas leasing" (Stanke 905).

The ANWR Coastal Plain is commonly known as the so-called "1002 Area," based on section 1002 of the legislation that became the ANILCA; the research that is being conducted as a result of section 1002 is supposed to determine whether the plain will remain off-limits to future development as a federally protected wilderness or it will be transformed into an industrial oil development and production complex (Stanke 905). Section 1002 of the ANILCA is the result of a heated debate on both sides concerning whether to allow such exploitation or to protect the unique qualities of this region. As noted above, there are powerful arguments on both sides of the issue: "Both sides of this controversy have strong arguments because the 1002 Area possesses both tremendous ecological significance and potential as an important source of oil and natural gas" (emphasis added) (Stanke 906).

The existing protections that are in place are no accident, though. The legislation that set aside the wilderness and refuge areas of Alaska are the deliberate result of the U.S. government's decision to keep oil and gas development out of the ANWR specifically to preserve the region's wilderness. According to Stanke, "In 1960, Fred Seaton, as Interior Secretary for the Eisenhower administration, designated 8.9 million acres in the northeastern corner of Alaska the Arctic National Wildlife Range -- a sanctuary for wildlife and wilderness conservation" (Stanke 905). As Grover points out, Interior Secretary Seaton's 1960 withdrawal order clearly stated the purposes for which the new wildlife range was to be managed: preserving the 'unique wildlife, wilderness and recreational values' of the region" (1169). During the period 1960 and 1979, the U.S. Department of the Interior managed the Range in a fashion that was congruent with the intent of this statement in spite of the vast natural resources discovered near Prudhoe Bay (Grover 1169). According to Weaver and Asmus (2006), the Prudhoe Bay oil field is the largest oil field in the United States. Not surprisingly, these resources have attracted a great deal of attention from commercial interests, but Stanke notes that the fact that the Refuge exists at all is not a matter of chance or luck, but rather is the.".. deliberate result of United States wilderness-preservation policy in place since the 1950s" (Stanke 906).

The exploitation of Alaska's oil and gas reserves has also had a profound impact on the native peoples of the state. According to Dombroski (2001), while the oil and gas industry have introduced new employment opportunities to the state over the past several decades, there has been a fundamental trade-off in native culture and the manner in which these people use the other resources in Alaska. Subsistence fishing, for example, has been replaced by commercial applications that harvest enormous quantities of salmon, but discard much of the catch because it is not commercially useful. Moreover, if the ANWR is opened to commercial oil and gas exploitation, the environmental consequences are expected to be severe. In this regard, Weaver and Asmus report that, "Competitive drilling can result in unnecessary wells being drilled and unnecessary surface infrastructure being installed to prevent drainage between licensees. The 'economic waste' of higher costs can ultimately lead to the physical waste of oil or gas as the field is abandoned sooner because it is not commercially profitable in its later stages" (3). Likewise, advocates of… READ MORE

How to Reference "Arguing Against Drilling for Oil in Alaska to Protect the Natural Wildlife" Term Paper in a Bibliography

Related Term Papers:

Oil Drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge Term Paper

drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). Specifically, it will discuss the issues of greenhouse gases and the importance of maintaining wilderness in America today. Proponents of… read more

Term Paper 4 pages (1160 words) Sources: 4 Style: MLA Topic: Energy / Power

---

Environmental Ethics Humans Term Paper

Ethics

environmental ethics/HUMANS and the ENVIRONMENT

Ethics and Environment

Environmental Ethics: Oil and the Environment

One of the greatest dangers to the environment from human beings is the exploitation of… read more

Term Paper 4 pages (1386 words) Sources: 4 Topic: Environment / Conservation / Ecology

---

Economics and the Environment Although Terry L Research Proposal

Economics and the Environment

Although Terry L. Anderson and Donald R. Leal published their book, Free Market Environmentalism (Revised Edition) in 2001, nearly nine years ago, a great deal of… read more

Research Proposal 4 pages (1394 words) Sources: 2 Style: MLA Topic: Economics / Finance / Banking

---

View 100+ more related papers  >>