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Speak Out
Should the U.S. open up Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for oil drilling?
Have you filled up your car with gas lately? It’s getting expensive, right?
Unrest in the Middle East – citizen uprisings in Libya and Egypt – is one of the factors driving up fuel prices this spring. Experts believe fuel could hit $5 a gallon on average by this summer.
President Barack Obama set a national energy goal last week in a speech at Georgetown University: reduce the country’s consumption of foreign oil by one-third before 2025. If we find sources of energy within our own shores, the president suggests, our country’s cost of oil will not be determined by turmoil elsewhere.
Within days, Republicans in the U.S. Senate forwarded a plan: reduce foreign oil consumption by opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil exploration and drilling. The area in northeastern Alaska is oil-rich but vastly unexplored. Oil harvested from that region could be piped across Alaska to the contiguous 48 states. In a letter to Ken Salazar, U.S. secretary of the interior, Gov. Sean Parnell called Alaska “the United States' most important and abundant domestic source of future oil and gas.”
| Domestic drilling projects are the domain of the U.S. Department of the Interior – part of the executive branch that is charge of both environmental conservation and management of natural energy resources. A slogan on its Web site illustrates this dual role: “Our mission [is] protecting America’s great outdoors and powering our future.” |
Obama’s call for energy reduction, however, was broader – in his speech at Georgetown, he called for more natural gas exploration, increased production of biofuels, more electric cars and higher fuel-efficiency standards. Obama has grown more open to domestic drilling, however. In turn, Republican drilling advocates have suggested a plan to set aside 25 percent of royalties from oil found in Alaska and put it toward renewable energy research projects.
But Obama also cautioned against what he called the “shock and trance” reaction to oil prices. Americans’ cries to reduce consumption of foreign oil – or their cries for “energy independence,” the catchphrase for it – are the loudest when an international conflict has inflated prices at an extreme rate. When those prices stabilize, the president suggests, energy independence is no longer a priority.
In an op-ed article in the Huffington Post, Marilyn Heiman of the Pew Environmental Group echoed this point, saying the Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico is an example of what can happen when the country rushes into a new drilling project without adequate plans and oversight.
Heiman illustrated the massive difficulty of cleaning up an oil spill in icy waters: “Shifting sea ice, sub-zero temperatures, extended periods of fog and frequent storms with strong winds could shut down spill response altogether. The U.S. Arctic Ocean has no resident Coast Guard vessels; additionally, the nearest air station is 950 air miles away. There are virtually no roads connecting remote villages to each other or to the rest of the state.” This could create a lingering environmental disaster that has repercussions from points north on the rest of the country. Environmentalists also fear drilling would damage the fragile ecosystem that supports a vast array of wildlife, including caribou, muskoxen, arctic foxes and migratory birds.
Additionally, a poll in The Financial magazine suggested that Americans priorities could contribute to the problem through an unwillingness to change their own behavior and consumption. In the poll, 50 percent of adults agreed that the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge should be opened for new drilling projects. But only 25 percent agree that the country should cut back on its energy consumption by lowering the speed limit to 55 m.p.h.
What do you think?
Should the U.S. open up Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for oil drilling? Will it help meet President Obama’s goal of reducing oil imports by one-third? What about Republicans’ plan to set aside money from the drilling to pay for renewable energy projects – will that help the U.S. achieve energy independence? How can the country provide adequate oversight to prevent oil spills in the Arctic? Would you be willing to lower the national speed limit to 55 m.p.h. to reduce our consumption of oil? Join the discussion!
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