Issue Position: ANWR
Issue Position
Given the events in 2010 in the Gulf of Mexico involving deepwater offshore oil development, it is more important than ever that Alaskans find a way to convince Americans of the need to open a small amount of Alaska's Arctic coastal plain to oil and gas development -- specifically a portion of the 1.5 million-acre coastal plain contained in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). The Gulf spill has resulted in a decline in domestic oil production by nearly 400,000 barrels a month. And while shale oil and enhanced recovery projects ultimately should help reverse those losses, the timing of production hikes may be painfully slow given the snail's pace of offshore drilling approvals by the new federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management. In December 2010, the Energy Information Administration predicted that world demand for crude oil, now at 83.7 million barrels per day, will resume its rise with the improving global economy to reach 110.8 million barrels per day in two decades. Even with marked conservation and energy efficiency and greater use of renewable and alternative energy sources, Americans are going to be paying a lot more for energy. If domestic production does not increase with demand, crude oil prices are expected to rise to between $125 and perhaps $200 per barrel by 2035. ANWR's estimated production of between 870,000 barrels to 1.5 million barrels a day could dramatically increase supplies and help curb energy costs. In addition, opening ANWR promises to generate hundreds of thousands of well-paid jobs and funnel $168 billion in revenue into the federal and state treasuries, assuming oil does hit $110 a barrel, , according to the Congressional Research Service.
In an effort to find a compromise on drilling in the Arctic coastal plain, Sen. Murkowski in 2009 introduced legislation to permit oil and gas to be siphoned from underneath the coastal plain of ANWR, without any permanent roads, wells, buildings, pipelines or structures in ANWR proper. Since that bill failed to win greater environmental support, Sen. Murkowski is considering in the 112th Congress both reintroduction of the No Surface Occupancy Western Arctic Coastal Plain Domestic Energy Security Act, while likely also introducing more traditional legislation to open the coastal plain to limited surface development -- provided that no more than 2,000 acres is physically impacted. Either bill would allow America to produce more domestic oil from Alaska. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the area is likely to contain 10.6 billion barrels of oil and 8.6 trillion cubic feet of natural gas; it having a chance of producing as much as 16 billion barrels of oil, which would make it the largest undiscovered onshore conventional oil deposit in North America. Given the current administration's reluctance to allow oil development in the National Petroleum Reserve Alaska, it is about the only place in northern Alaska capable of offering significant onshore oil production.
Sen. Murkowski believes that either ANWR proposal would allow production of oil and gas without causing disturbance or environmental damage to the refuge because new technology, extended reach directional drilling, permits oil wells to be drilled from a smaller well pad and still tap deposits located between eight and 10 miles away. While current technology limits subsurface techniques from producing all of the oil and gas likely in the refuge, technology is rapidly advancing. As technology further develops, more underground reserves will be able to be developed. Sen. Murkowski hopes that all sides will eventually see that while this nation should move toward using more renewable energy, it will remain dependent on fossil fuels for many decades and that it makes sense to utilize domestic reserves to gain that energy. Otherwise the nation's military and economic security will be threatened and the global environment endangered, since America will simply import oil from nations that have far weaker environmental laws governing its production.
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