Posted: 03/16/2005
ANWR Approval Big Step Toward Energy Independence
NCPA E-Team Scholars Say Precedent Also Is Important
DALLAS (March 16, 2005) – Approval of a budget amendment that would open Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) to oil drilling is a major step in reducing reliance on foreign oil and could become the centerpiece for a comprehensive national energy plan, according to scholars for the NCPA’s E-Team project.
“Congress must now sustain the Senate budget initiative,” said NCPA Senior Fellow H. Sterling Burnett. “ANWR is important not only for the oil it will provide, but for the precedent it sets. With oil selling for more than 50 dollars per barrel, drilling on other public lands could contribute billions of barrels of oil that currently are off limits to drilling.”
Although today’s vote was close, 51-49, the Senate had blocked initiatives to drill in ANWR over the past 4 years even though the Clinton Administration argued that it could be done in an environmentally friendly manner. In fact, a 1980 law that doubled the size of ANWR to 19 million acres expressly permitted Congress to develop a process through which exploration and production could proceed. And then-President Jimmy Carter hailed the bill as a great compromise that “strikes a balance between protecting areas of great beauty and value and allowing development of Alaska’s vital oil, gas, mineral and timber resource.”
“ANWR is estimated to contain between 6 and 16 billion barrels of economically recoverable oil,” Dr. Burnett added. “And there is no indication that indigenous wildlife would be harmed or hindered in any way, especially since they have flourished along the North Slope and Prudhoe Bay.”
Dr. Burnett also noted that drilling at ANWR might also provide a cornerstone for a national energy bill. The NCPA E-Team has long recommended passage of a national energy bill that focuses on consumers, is energy neutral and ends all energy subsidies.