What's next for oil in the Alaskan Arctic?
What's next for oil in the Alaskan Arctic?
April 7, 2010 | 8:57 pm
Just because the Obama administration has finally settled on its strategy for offshore oil and gas development on the Outer Continental Shelf, don't think the issue of what happens in the Alaskan Arctic is settled -- far from it.
Already, lots of new developments are underway. New briefs have been filed in the attempt to stop Shell Offshore Inc.'s plan to drill exploration wells in the Chukchi and Beaufort seas; a new Government Accountability Office report criticizes the Minerals Management Agency in Alaska for how it conducts its environmental reviews; and now the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is turning attention back to the classic battleground over Arctic oil, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
The agency announced it is beginning its first update in more than two decades of the conservation plan for the 19.2-million-acre refuge that lies west of the Prudhoe Bay oilfields on Alaska's North Slope -- home to grizzly bears, moose, wolverines, Dall sheep, birds, a massive herd of caribou and, if you're feeling optimistic, as much as 10.4 billion barrels of oil.
About 8 million acres of the refuge already are protected as wilderness. The new study could recommend additional areas for wilderness protection (read: no oil drilling, ever) including, conceivably, the so-called 1002 area of the coastal plain designated by Congress to study for possible oil development.
"There are no avenues of discussion closed off to the public," Fish and Wildlife Service spokesman Bruce Woods said.
Conservationists will use the upcoming series of six public meetings in Alaska in April and May and another in Washington, D.C., on May 4 to champion protection for the entire refuge.
"Obviously, the critical component would be the 1002 area. They [the FWS] will be looking at the other half of the refuge to see if they should look at it to be designated as wilderness, too," said Emilie Surrusco of the Alaska Wilderness League.
Alaska's Democratic Senator, Mark Begich, weighed in quickly. “The Obama administration is wrong to pursue new wilderness in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge or anywhere else in Alaska," he said in a statement.
"I’ll fight any effort to block development of the enormous oil and gas likely beneath the Arctic Refuge. I’ll work through my position on the Senate Budget Committee to cut any funding for this effort, and with the other members of Alaska’s congressional delegation to short-circuit this unnecessary, money-wasting review.â€
