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 THE FACTS ON DRILLING * Drilling in the Refuge is bad energy policy and even worse environmental policy. Even if we started drilling tomorrow, it would take at least 10 years for any crude to be delivered to refineries, and estimates are that there's only a six month supply of "economically-recoverable" oil over 50 years. * Drilling for oil in the Arctic Wildlife Refuge makes as much sense as chopping down the redwoods for firewood, capping Old Faithful in Yellowstone for geothermal power, or damming the Grand Canyon for hydroelectric power. * It would be a terrible mistake to ruin one of the last pure wildlife refuges in the world for a few months of oil a decade from now. We need an energy policy that addresses our needs today and reduces our dependence on foreign supplies of oil in the long run. * If we increased our energy efficiency by just 2.2 percent per year, we could cut our reliance on foreign oil by more than 50 percent in 10 years. * Increasing the fuel economy of traditional cars by just 3 miles per gallon saves the same amount of oil over the next 10 years as what we could expect to get from the Refuge. * Increasing the fuel efficiency of replacement tires for our cars to the same level as those sold on new automobiles will save drivers $90 in fuel costs over the lifetime of the tires and will save the U.S. more than 70 times the amount of oil we might find in the Refuge. * The electricity crisis in California is unrelated to a shortage of oil. Less than one percent of the electricity generated in California comes from burning oil. * New technologies offer great hope. We should invest more in renewable and alternative sources of energy, not only to reduce this dependence on foreign supplies, but also to curb the warming of our planet. We should also explore ways to increase energy efficiency, including by offering tax credits for purchasing hybrid cars, which are already on the market and get 60 to 70 miles per gallon. * We can do both. Americans are concerned about their high heating bills and the high cost of gasoline. But technology provides us with the opportunity to both meet our energy needs and to guard against the destruction of our irreplaceable natural places, to protect the air we breathe and the water we drink and to halt the harmful warming of our earth. * The oil companies said Prudhoe Bay would be a clean oil development and now it is a sprawl of industrialization, emits more air pollution than many U.S. cities and spills oil and other toxins more than once a day. First the Facts * Proponents of drilling claim there are 16 billion barrels of oil under the Refuge. As recently as 1998, the U.S. Geological Survey reported that there is only a five percent chance of finding this amount of oil. Of course, this means there's a 95 percent chance no such quantity of oil exists. * The USGS estimates that only a portion of ANWR's oil is "economically-recoverable." Almost two thirds of the oil is too expensive for oil producers to ever extract; if they did they would be forced to sell at a loss. * The amount of "economically-recoverable" oil is estimated to be a six to eight-month supply spread out over 50 years. If we started drilling tomorrow, we would not see a drop of oil for at least 10 years. * The Refuge is only five percent of Alaska's north coast and the rest is available for exploration and development. DID YOU KNOW... * Americans consume 25 percent of the world's petroleum, but we possess only two percent of the supply. We cannot drill our way out of this imbalance. * Oil bears no connection to California's electricity crisis. The state relies on oil for less than one percent of its electrical needs; nationally the figure is a mere three percent. * Oil from the Refuge would not affect the price of a barrel of oil. This is a global market and the Refuge's paltry 0.3 percent contribution would not lower prices of gasoline or heating oil for American consumers. * For the first 10 months of last year, the U.S. imported more oil from Canada than any other nation, including Saudi Arabia. * The 150,000-strong Porcupine caribou herd is at the center of culture and life for the Native American Gwich'ins; not unlike the Plains Indians and the great buffalo heards of the 1800s. ENVIRONMENTALLY SENSITIVE DRILLING IS A MYTH * The Trans-Alaska and Prudhoe Bay oil fields have had an annual average of 409 spills since 1996 of everything from crude oil to acid. * Current oil operations in Alaska's North Slop every year emit about 56,500 tons of nitrogen oxides, which cause smog and acid rain and release up to 110,000 tons of methane, a greenhouse gas that contributes to global warming. * Oil field activities also produce large amounts of sewage sludge, scrap metal, garbage and other waste every year. * Oil reserves under the Refuge are diffuse, located in at least 35 different places. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service therefore determined that extracting this oil would require the construction of a web of roads, pipelines, airstrips and processing plants. Where once pristine arctic tundra existed, the North Slope now hosts one of the world's largest industrial complexes, with more than 1,500 miles of roads and pipelines. * Do we trust those interested in profits with protecting our national treasures? Maybe not: in 1999, the Justice Department settled a suit with BP Amoco for illegally disposing of hazardous waste on the North Slope over a period of several years. The company plead guilty, was fined $500,000 and paid $6.5 million to settle a civil suit. SUGGESTED ALTERNATIVES TO SPOILING THE REFUGE * We must take aggressive steps to diminish our demand for non-renewable, polluting fossil fuels through increased energy efficiency and conservation. * If we incresed our energy efficiency by just 2.2 percent per year, we could cut our reliance on foreign sources of oil by more than 50 percent in 10 years. * Two thirds of U.S. oil consumption is for transportation. If we are serious about reducing our dependence on oil generally, then we must take aggressive steps to lessen this demand. * Replacement tires for automobiles are less fuel efficient than new ones. Simply equipping our cars with the same quality tires originally sold on the car would save drivers $90 over the lifetime of the tires and would save more than 70 times more oil than what we could hope to extract from the Refuge. * Increasing vehicle fuel economy a few miles per gallon would save the same amount of oil over the next ten years that will be drilled out of the Refuge. * One good, innovative idea is to offer tax credits for purchasing hybrid cars, which are already on the market and get 60 to 70 miles per gallon. * Increasing our natural gas supply is one option. It's a clean fuel. The North Slope of Alaska is estimated to hold almost a two year supply of it–all outside the Refuge-- but the gas and oil industries have not developed the infrastructure to bring it to market. * New technologies offer the greatest long-term hope. We must invest boldly in the power potential of renewable and alternative sources of energy such as fuel cells, solar energy, wind and geothermal energies. We can encourage such technologies through tax credits and their use in federal facilities. * The incredible technological revolution we've experienced significantly enhances our ability to conserve energy. For example, since 1975, a new generation of energy-efficient refrigerators has reduced their electric consumption by 75 percent. If we still used the old, inefficient refrigerators, the U.S. would have spent about $50 billion constructing new power plants to produce needed electricity.
ABOUT THE USGS DATA * Critics charge that the data upon which current estimates are based is from 1987. Not exactly true. According to the USGS, "Since completion of that report, numerous wells have been drilled and oil fields discovered near the Refuge, new geologic and geophysical data have become available, seismic processing and interpretation capabilities have improved and the economics of North Slope oil development have changed significantly." * The new 1998 assessment involved three years of study by 40 USGS scientists.
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