Arctic National Refuge in Danger

Action:

Write the Administration and tell President Bush that you are a person of faith who has concern for God's creation. You oppose drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Write to your U.S. Representative and two Senators.

Since 1980, when the Arctic National Refuge was created, oil companies have been trying to open it for oil exploration. Because of the current energy crisis on the West Coast, the prospect of drilling is more real now than it ever has been.

The energy crisis and our dependence on foreign oil has become the pro-drilling argument to open the refuge for oil exploration. It is true that the energy shortage and our reliance on OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries) are the problems that need immediate and permanent solutions. However, there is much evidence that drilling in the refuge is not the best solution to either problem for several reasons.

First, we will not see any significant amount of oil from the refuge for five to ten years. Developing an oil-producing operation is a lengthy and expensive process and is only feasible when oil prices are high. The OPEC nations control the price of oil and would quickly cut world supply to offset any influx of Alaskan oil. There is no guarantee oil from the refuge would ever reach American consumers because Alaska's congressional delegates are strongly pushing to resume selling Alaskan oil to China, Korea, Japan and other foreign countries, a practice that was halted during recent oil company mergers. BP-Amoco (which recently merged with Arco) and Phillips Petroleum Company control about 80% of the oil production in the Arctic region.

The second reason not to drill in the refuge is the fact that natural gas, not oil, is the main source of power in California. The Alaskan North Slope is already open for drilling and has large amounts of natural gas that are yet untapped. Third, the amount of oil within the Refuge equals the amount the U.S. consumes in six months. The only way our country will be able to reduce its dependency on foreign oil is to reduce consumption. Destroying one of our last ecological treasures should not be part of a solution.

The law that created the Arctic National Refuge left Congress with the power to open it to drilling. For years, whenever the political climate has been favorable, pro-drilling advocates have pushed for legislation to open the refuge. The odds are now overwhelmingly in their favor.

The Bush Administration has made opening the refuge a cornerstone of its energy policy and chosen energy and secretary secretaries who share his will to drill. The pressure is on to try every legislative maneuver from stand-alone legislation to slipping a drilling rider onto some completely unrelated, must-pass bill.

Momentum is gaining within Congress to drill in the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The refuge is the only remaining 5% of Alaska's North Slope not already open to drilling. The Arctic Refuge is our nation's greatest wildlife sanctuary, and drilling there would be like drilling in Yellowstone National Park or the Grand Canyon. The coastal plain is its biological heart. Often called "America's Serengeti," it is home to polar bears, musk oxen, wolves, millions of migratory birds, caribou and hundreds of other species - and is one of the few truly wild places left. The industrial disturbance would be immense and spills inevitable. Polar bears could abandon their dens, leaving cubs to die. British Petroleum's facilities at nearby Prudhoe Bay constitute one os the world's largest industrial complexes, and in 1999 alone it had 293 spills of 44,551 gallons. Of greater concern is the memory of the wildlife killed by the massive Exxon Valdez spill.

Many oil companies have their sights on the biological heart of the refuge, its Arctic Ocean coastal plain, an area critical to the survival of many birds and mammals. About 160 bird species, including species that visit each of the lower 48 states, find breeding, nesting or resting places on the coastal plain. The plain is the most important on-shore denning area in the United States for polar bears. It is the principal calving ground of the 130,000-strong migratory Porcupine caribou herd, the second largest caribou herd in the United States and a key source of food, clothing and medicine for the Gwich'in Indians, one of the world's few remaining subsistence cultures. The 1980 law that created the Arctic National Refuge also closed 1.5 million acres of the coastal plain to gas and oil exploration unless specifically authorized by Congress.

More than 90 percent of the coastal lands west of the Arctic national Wildlife Refuge have already been opened to drilling, with many documented negative effects on wildlife and habitat. Despite claims by the big oil companies that they can drill and have drilled responsibly on Alaska's North Slope, spill are commonplace. At the Prudhoe Bay oilfield, just 60 miles west of the refuge, reportable spills of oil products and hazardous substances happen every day and are compounded by the noise and air pollution industrialization brings. Shortly after drilling started in this area, the central arctic caribou her shifted its calving grounds away from development, resulting in the use of lower quality habitats. In addition, drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge could be particularly disastrous for wildlife because the area targeted includes some of the refuge's most critical and sensitive habitat.

This issue will come up in Congress this session, probably soon. It is important for all of us to let our Senators and Representatives know of the ecological price we would pay for a relatively insignificant amount of oil if drilling begins in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. This will be a close vote, so every letter, phone call, or E-mail a member of Congress receives from a constituent will make a huge difference.

PRESBYTERIAN GENERAL ASSEMBLY POLICY:

The 1990 General Assembly policy entitled, "Restoring Creation for Ecology and Justice," speaks most directly to the issues involved in drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The policy states: "The 202nd General Assembly affirms that...earth-keeping today means insisting on sustainability-the ongoing capacity of natural and social systems to thrive together-which requires human being to practice wise, humble, responsible stewardship, after the model of servanthood that we have in Jesus...Basic policies in support of wildlife and wildlands, consistent with the Spirit of the following aphorisms: keep wildlife wild and free, avoid irreversible change, protect and expand remaining public wildlands. In implementing policies, the policy states that we "1. Preserve wildlands in all the diverse kinds of American ecosystems...7. Support Native American efforts to retain and restore wildlands and to maintain a sustainable relationship with wildlife."