Parks, Open Spaces, Wild Places Reports
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Executive Summary
Environment America is the new home of U.S. PIRG's environmental work. The
coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is truly one of
America’s last wild places. It contains no roads, trails, or
structures, so you must fly, boat, or walk to get there. It is a
pristine habitat, one that supports large populations of migratory
birds, caribou, muskoxen, all three species of bear, wolves, Dall
sheep, and snow geese. The annual migration of the 129,000-member
caribou herd evokes images of the long-gone buffalo herds of the Great
Plains.
The
coastal plain of the Arctic Refuge is the only area along Alaska’s
entire North Slope that is not currently open for oil and gas
exploration. Unfortunately, oil companies such as ExxonMobil and their
allies in the Bush administration and Congress are pushing to drill in
the coastal plain of the Arctic Refuge, endangering one of America’s
last wild places for a few months’ worth of oil and gas.
Drilling
advocates have made several different arguments to try to garner more
support for drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. These
arguments simply do not stand up to the facts.
• Drilling Myth: Drilling in the Arctic Refuge will lower gasoline prices and make America less dependent on foreign oil.
Turning the coastal plain of the Arctic Refuge into a sprawling
industrial complex would do little to ease our energy problems in the
short or long term. At its peak, the Arctic Refuge likely would provide
less than one percent (0.7%) of projected world oil production and
would decline thereafter, according to the Energy Information
Administration (EIA). Given the small amount of oil in the Arctic
Refuge, EIA also estimates that drilling in the Refuge would reduce
gasoline prices by less than a penny-and-a-half a gallon and not until
2025. Moreover, since oil prices are set on the world market, OPEC
producers and other oil-exporting nations could cut their output to
counter any increase in U.S. output to keep oil and gasoline prices
high.
• Drilling Myth: The oil industry can drill without harming the environment.
According to the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation,
Alaska’s North Slope experienced 4,532 oil spills between 1996 and
2004, an average of 504 spills annually. Overall, reported spills
increased by 33 percent between 1996 and 2004, peaking in 2002. These
spills released a total of 1.9 million gallons of crude oil, diesel,
drilling fluids and waste, and other substances into the delicate
Arctic environment. In 2004 alone, 554 spills were reported on the
North Slope, or one spill every 16 hours.
• Drilling Myth: The oil industry could develop the coastal plain using only 2,000 acres.
Drilling proponents who argue the oil industry can limit development to
2,000 acres are only referring to surface acreage covered by production
and support facilities and are excluding seismic or other exploration
activities, which have had significant impacts on the Arctic
environment to the west of the coastal plain. Oil field development in
America’s Arctic includes a vast network of seismic exploration trails,
gravel mines, roads, drill pads, pipelines, processing facilities,
operating and housing facilities, and waste and sewer treatment plants
that stretches across 1,000 square miles of tundra and has changed the
Arctic ecosystem forever.
Drilling
for oil in this pristine haven for wildlife would disrupt and
ultimately destroy one of America’s last remaining truly wild places.
Instead of pushing to drill in the Arctic Refuge, the Bush
administration should act to make our cars and SUVs go farther on a
gallon of gasoline. Simply closing certain regulatory and tax loopholes
for gas guzzlers would reduce U.S. oil dependence by 1.5 million
barrels per day in 2025 and save consumers more than $30 billion,
according to the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS). Moreover, a 2001
UCS study showed that increasing fleetwide fuel economy standards to 40
mpg by 2012 and 55 mpg by 2020 would save nearly 5 million barrels of
oil a day after 18 years and 1.5 million barrels per day after only
eight years. Drilling in the Arctic Refuge is no substitute for a real
energy policy to reduce America’s dependence on oil.
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