ANWR drilling is a contentious subject often debated during elections and in political circles.  The issue cannot be resolved unless the impacts of drilling at ANWR are completely explored.

The drilling in anwar issue starts in the beautiful state of Alaska.  ANWR is the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.  It’s a little more than 19 million acres in the North Slope in Alaska.  More land has been added to the area that fell under federal protection beginning in 1960.  The stated purpose of protecting the area was so resources could be preserved  Is protecting resources good when it blocks the use of those resources?

ANWR drilling first became an issue when conservationists lost the battle to stop the Trans-Alaska Pipeline.  Their hope was to preserve areas that hadn’t been spoiled, in their opinion, by the pipeline.  It took place in 1976.  In 1980 when president Carter created 104 million acres of Alaskan national parks, he blocked drilling in ANWR unless Congress approved it.  The fight was on from both sides.  One side was angry at Carter for requiring Congressional approval for drilling, while the other side was angry at him for even allowing the possibility of drilling in the area.

The US Fish and Wildlife Service recommended opening ANWR drilling in November of 1986.  It proposed a trade of ANWR land for land owned by Eskimo tribes to accomplish this.  But the anti drilling people said that would impact caribou herds.  The US entered an agreement with Canada that both countries would have a say in drilling the area, which squashed the Wildlife Service’s recommendation.

There continues to be an argument over ANWR drilling.  Oil taken from the area would improve national security by cutting dependence on foreign oil, say the pro drilling people.  What many people don’t realize is that a vast majority of US oil comes from Russia and South America.  Both are rather stable oil suppliers.

The people who don’t want ANWR drilling keep talking about the environment.  These are the same types of groups that block the use of salt to melt snow on Oregon roads in the winter.  The result is a drastic increase in the number of accidents and human lives lost.  But the plants around the roads can thrive in the salt free soil.  

It may take a miracle to resolve the issue of ANWR drilling.

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 19th, 2009 at 5:04 pm and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.