1. 1. Alaska, Oil, and Energy
   • • • • April 2005
   • • • • Ned Hettinger
2. 2. An Energy Crisis?
   • The Bush Administrations Energy Strategy Report stated:"America in the year 2001 faces the most serious energy shortage since the oil embargoes of the 1970's.
   • Gas prices today (April 05) at $2.50
   • American imports over half of its oil
   • Drilling for oil in Alaskas Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is supposed to be an important part of nations response to this crisis
3. 3. Questions explored
   • Is opening up the Arctic Refuge a step in the right direction for U.S. energy policy, for the State of Alaska, and for the human and nonhuman communities involved?
   • What do Alaskans think about drilling and why?
   • Can there be environmentally-friendly drilling for oil in the Refuge?
   • Are there better alternatives?
4. 4. Alaska is by far the largest state
   • About 1/5 size of entire U.S.
   • 375 million acres
5. 6. Alaskas Wild Beauty
   • Alaskas size, remoteness, mountains, glaciers, and wildlife make it our countrys wilderness treasure
6. 7. Denali
7. 9. Portage Glacier
8. 10. Crow Pass and Raven Glacier
9. 11. History of Alaskan land and oil policy
   • Alaska statehood in 1958
   • State received right to select 104 million acres
   • States rights were contingent on settling Natives land claims
   • AK Natives claimed virtually all of AKs 375 million acres as their own
10. 12. Oil Discovery Led to Native Settlement
    • 1968 oil discovered at Prudhoe Bay
    • State wanted to build an 800 mile pipeline from Prudhoe Bay to Valdez, bisecting the state
    • Native Alaskans land claims made it impossible to get the needed rights of way
11. 13. Pict of AK
12. 14.
    • Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1970
    • Natives got 44 million acres (12%) of AK
    • Included in ANCSA was a provision to withdraw 80 million acres for conservation lands
13. 15. Battle Over AK Pipeline
    • 800 mile pipeline bisecting Americas last great wilderness wasnt going to get build easily
    • Three env. groups(FOE, EDF, WS) and 5 Native Alaska villages sued
    • In 1973, Congress resolved the suit by passing AK pipeline authorization act
    • Senate vote was 49 to 49, Nixons V.P.Spiro Agnew casting the tie breaking vote
14. 16. Pipeline through AK range
15. 17. Battle Over Alaska Conservation Lands
    • How much of Alaska would be set aside in conservation areas?
    • ANSCA deal was 80 million acres
    • Mo Udall (Pres. Carters Sec. of Interior) wanted 123 million acres with 60 million in wilderness
    • AK Senator Stevens wanted 60 million acres with 12 million wilderness
    • Stalemate until Pres. Carter used Antiquities Act to set aside 154 million acres in National Monuments
    • AK went berserk
16. 18. 1980 Compromise
    • Passage of the Alaska National Interests Lands Conservation Act
    • President Carter signed just as he left office.
    • 104 million acres of new conservation land in AK with 50 million of that wilderness
    • This was a doubling of the total wilderness acreage in the U.S.
    • Carter has said this was the most important conservation legislation of 20 thcentury
17. 19. 1989 Exxon Valdez Oil Spill
    • 11 million gallons
    • 53 rdbiggest spill
    • 11,000 miles of coastline oiled (470 direct miles; SC to DC)
    • Devastated Prince William Sounds wildlife and human communities
    • Destroyed subsistence way of life of local people?
    • Huge wildlife losses (75% sea otters killed; loons still not recovered)
    • 20% of crude oil still was there 12 years later
18. 20. Animals affected by Exxon Valdez Spill
19. 21. 22,000 carcasses of common murres found
20. 22. 13,000 marbled murrelets killed
21. 23. Valdez Terminal
22. 24. Kenai oil tanker in Valdez
23. 25. Columbia glacier icebergs
24. 26. Bligh Reef
25. 27. Pipeline Club
    • Will it happen again?
26. 28. Tanker tied to tug
27. 29. History of Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
    • Pres. Eisenhowerin response to a campaign of Muries and Supreme Court Justice William O Douglas set aside Refuge in 1960
    • 19.8 million acres in north east AK, bordering Canada (slightly larger SC)
    • 17.5 permanently off limits to development (wilderness)
    • 1.5 million acre coastal plain (1002 area) Congress can open for oil/gas development
28. 30. Special Place?
    • Defenders unique geography makes it a wildlife/wildland treasure
    • Brooks Range swings to within 40 miles of coast, range of arctic ecosystemsin a small area
    • Interior Sec. Gale Norton has called it aflat white nothingness
    • A Godforsaken mosquito-infested swamp shrouded in frozen darkness year
29. 31. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says
    • • • "The Arctic Refuge is among the most complete, pristine, and undisturbed ecosystems on earth. Here coastal lagoons, barrier islands, arctic tundra, foothills, mountains, and boreal forests provide a combination of habitats, climate, and geography unmatched by any other northern conservation area
30. 32. "This unique compression of habitats concentrates the occurrence of a wide variety of wildlife and fish species.... In fact, according to FWS, the Arctic Refuge coastal plaincontains the greatest wildlife diversity of any protected area above the Arctic Circle ."
31. 33. Species in Refuge
    • • • • The area's large mammals also include grizzly bears, polar bears, Dall sheep, wolves, moose, and a herd of rare muskoxen. 135 species of birds are known to use the 1002 area, including large flocks of snow geese which feed on the area's nutritious vegetation in the fall in preparation for their long flight to their wintering grounds in the Central Valley of California. Other animal species of the area include shorebirds, loons, songbirds, and raptors, as well as fish such as the Arctic char and Arctic grayling.
32. 34. Caribou in Denali
33. 35. Arguments against ANWR drilling
    • 95% of Alaskas Arctic Coastal plain is already open to oil drilling
    • Prudhoe Bays poor env. record:400 oil spills a year since 1996
    • • Large amounts of air pollution
    • • Only one EPA worker on North Slope
34. 36. How much oil in ANWR?
    • USGS 1998:3.2 to 6.3 billion barrels (7-13 month U.S. supply)
    • Proponents say 10-16 billion barrels (2-3 year supply)
    • USGS says 5% chance of 16 billion
35. 37. Conservation/Efficiency Alternative
    • Enhancing energy efficiency in buildings and industry could easily save us as much oil
36. 38. V.P. Dick Cheney
    • Conservation may be a sign of personal virtue, but it is not a sufficient basis for a sound, comprehensive energy policy.
37. 39. Cheney on Conservation (continued)
    • To think that we could simply conserve or ration our way out of the energy crisis is 1970's era thinking.
    • Supports energy efficiency only when it does not reduce living standards or negatively impact U.S. industry.
    • Opposes any energy conservation measures based on the idea that Americans now live too well or that people should do more with less.
38. 40. FuelEconomyStandards(CAF)
    • Adopted in 1975, average rose from 14 to 27mpg by mid 80s
    • No significance increases in CAF since
    • Because of the popularity of SUVs (only required to average 20.7 mpg vs 27.5 for cars), in 2002 average U.S. fuel economy fell to its lowest level since 1980
    • China has proposed more stringent rules
    • Raising CAF from 27 to 40 mpg would save a billion barrels a year
39. 41. Can there be Env. Friendly Drilling in ANWR?
    • New drilling technologies cast doubt on the claim that ANWR will be as devastated as Prudhoe Bay
    • Not clear that the Prudhoe Bay oilfields a disaster for wildlife
40. 42. New Drilling Technology
    • Small well pads with drills branching out 4-5 miles underground
    • 2000 acres of total disturbance out of 1.5 million acres?
    • Drilling mud, contaminated water, spilled oil, and discarded chemicals formerly put in waste pits can be ground into a slurry and pumped underground
    • Gravel roads (mined from river beds) spread all over fragile tundra can now be built from ice that melts in spring
    • The maze of oil collecting pipelines can be raised for animals to duck under and elevated elbows lessen effects of spills
41. 43. Oil Pad
42. 44. Ice Road
43. 45. Caribou under pipeline
44. 46. Bear on Pipeline
45. 47. New Survey Techniques
    • The success rate raised from 1 producing well for each 10 exploratory wells to 5 in 10.
    • Dynamite no longer used, but vibrating 10-ton thumper trucks crisscross tundra in an intensive way leaving scars disrupting wildlife
    • 2000 acre figure doesnt include this
46. 48. Thumper Truck
47. 49. Damage from Thumper Truck (in Utah)
48. 50. 1984 track from seismic exploration
49. 51. Same track in 1999 (15 years later)
50. 52. Critics Arent Impressed
    • Once the work shifts from exploration to extraction of oil, the result is always a sprawl of pipelines, roads, crew quarters, and fuel depots:In the end, even with all this technology, youve got a massive industrial complex.
51. 53. Alaskas Oil Addiction
    • 78% of state budget is funded by North Slope oil revenue
    • Alaskans pay no state income or sales taxes
    • Each Alaskan receives yearly check from state oil revenues; Typically it is $1000 to $2,000.
    • Oil from Prudhoe Bay is running out (From 19 billion barrels to 6.4 now); Pipeline flow down 50%.
    • No wonder 75% of Alaskans support drilling in the arctic.
52. 54. Natives perspective
    • Inupiat Eskimos who live in ANWR next to 1002 support it; 78% in Kaktovik
    • Own oil/gas rights in ANWR which cant be leased unless ANWR opened up
    • Do not live a subsistence lifestyle but are part of the modern cash economy
    • One of the USs wealthiest Native groups
    • Oppose offshore oil development fearing it would harm bowhead whale hunt important to their cultural identity
53. 55. Inupiat Eskimos of Kaktovic
54. 56. Gwichin Indians oppose
    • Fear it will harm Porcupine Caribou herd
    • Dont live in ANWR but hunt caribou that migrate there.
    • Live (mostly) a subsistence lifestyle; Caribou meat 80% of tribal diet
    • Ethic of hunters sharing caribou meat essential to their culture
    • 1002: Sacred birthing ground of caribou and ultimately of Gwichin people
55. 57. Gwichin Indians
56. 58. Effects on Porcupine Caribou herd?
    • 150,000 animals migrate to coastal plain in summer for foraging, protection from predators and insect, and to calve
    • Canadian estimate: Drilling could cause 40% decline in birthrate
    • Central Artic herd near Prudhoe bay:Thriving (oil industry) or calving near Prudhoe Bay nearly ceased(Canadians)
    • Porcupine herd has no where to move
57. 59. Caribou and Oil Rig
    • One study:Wildlife adapted well to oil drilling.
58. 60. Tentative conclusions
    • Should not risk cultural genocide
    • Even environmentally-friendly oil development would ruin the Arctic Refuges pristine character
59. 61. Should not risk cultural genocide
    • Gwichin spokesperson Faith Gemmil:Dont sacrifice our way of life for short term economic gain.
    • Some impact on Porcupine Herd likely; but probably not enough to undermine the Gwichin subsistence hunt and way of life
    • But even a tiny chance of causing cultural genocide should prevent drilling
    • • Especially given our the history of our treatment of Natives Americans
60. 62. Oil development would ruin the Arctic Refuges pristine nature
    • A significant part of the value of this place is that it is untouched by modern human industrial desire
    • The pristine, virginal character of places like the Arctic Refuge are necessarily spoiled even by environmentally careful petro development
    • Temporary McDonalds in Louvre?
    • Sexual assault while sedated?
61. 63. Current politics of ANWR (April 2005)
    • On March 18, Senate voted 51-49 to include revenue from drilling in the Refuge in the federal budget
    • This means that opponents of drilling cannot use a filibuster to block oil development in the Refuge
    • • A filibuster can only be broken by 60 votes, something drilling proponents dont have
    • Last year a federal budget was not passed, and so drilling opponents have some hope this will occur again
    • They also hope that the drilling provision will be taken out of the budget in future votes
62. 65. Alaska, Oil, and Energy
    • • • • Ned Hettinger