Republicans in Congress have renewed efforts to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas drilling. They are seeking to use the federal budget as their vehicle, and they have the support of the Trump White House. The last time they made such a bid, they failed a dozen years ago. Little has changed since, the refuge still a national treasure, worthy of protection as wilderness, its preservation part of the obligation of one generation to the next.
The budget plan approved by the Senate last week calls for raising an additional $1 billion during the next decade through the leasing of federal lands. That includes the 19.6 million acres of the refuge in the remote northeast portion of Alaska, the drilling activity targeted for 1.5 million acres along the coastal plain.
The congressional push has been complemented by the Interior Department now seeking to modify regulations dating to the 1980s and pave the way to drilling activity. This regulatory approach likely will encounter complications.
A federal judge as recently as 2015 sided with the argument that the authority expired long ago. In 2001, the Interior Department solicitor issued an opinion finding the 1983 regulation was a “time-limited authorization.”
The first step in drilling activity involves seismic studies to determine the potential for oil and gas production. Would companies jump to launch evaluations? Such preliminary work might go forward. The most telling measure is whether they would begin the process of exploratory wells and eventually production.
With oil at roughly $50 per barrel, they probably would stay away, according to many analysts. More, David Yarnold of the National Audubon Society recently told the Washington Post that the federal government would likely collect just $9 million in auctioning drilling rights on the coastal plain.
If the numbers don’t work, and thus the promises of jobs and growth, what is the rush? Or better yet, why disrupt these precious lands under any circumstances?
Already 40 percent of the refuge has been declared wilderness, or out of reach for development. If anything, the remainder deserves the same protection.
The refuge has been called the American Serengeti, the nesting place for hundreds of species of migratory birds, home to polar bears, wolves and a huge porcupine caribou herd. It is rich in wild and complex habitats, including lagoons, beaches and marshes, mountains, alpine tundra, forests and many species of fish and mammals, marine and land.
John Seiberling led the way in protecting tens of millions of acres in Alaska. He did so in the spirit of Theodore Roosevelt and the duty to leave pristine such lands for generations to come.
The development of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge isn’t necessary to national security or the energy supply. It belongs untouched.
— Akron Beacon Journal
