NYT: A Quest for Oil Collides With Nature in Alaska

New York Times ^ | October 2, 2005 | FELICITY BARRINGER

[OESY]

The 217,000 acres of windblown water and mottled tundra here on the North Slope of Alaska, separating Teshekpuk Lake from the Beaufort Sea, are home in summer to 50,000 to 90,000 migratory birds. This corner of Alaska's National Petroleum Reserve is also thought to be brimming with oil.

From the presidencies of Ronald Reagan through Bill Clinton, federal officials put the bird habitat off limits to oil development. But after federal geologists in 2002 quadrupled their estimate of the oil available here in the northeast quadrant of the reserve, the Bush administration proposed putting the whole area up for lease to oil and gas companies.

The move has touched off a fierce debate over whether new technologies can allow wildlife to coexist easily with oil exploration....

But Stan Senner, executive director of Audubon Alaska, dismisses the talk of balance. "Oil companies and the people who are promoting oil development will go where the oil is," Mr. Senner said "and they won't stop at anything to get it."

Just how much oil is in the northeast corner of the reserve is a matter of professional guesses, most of them the proprietary information of companies. In 2002, the United States Geological Survey gave a mean estimate of 9.3 billion barrels, compared with the Arctic refuge's mean estimate of 7.7 billion barrels. The oil is concentrated, the geologists said, in the northern third of the petroleum reserve, which includes Teshekpuk.

Interest in the oil potential of that section of the reserve has grown as the older fields in Prudhoe Bay have passed their production peaks.

The Trans-Alaska Pipeline, the centerpiece of the advanced infrastructure that supports oil development in this forbidding climate, carries only about half its capacity of oil on the 800-mile journey to the Gulf of Alaska from the Beaufort Sea....

[OESY]

An oil well sits in the midst on the mosquito-infested tundra wasteland on the northern coast of Alaska known as the National Petroleum Reserve. A majority of Alaskans, including the local Inupiat natives, favor drilling. Meanwhile, we have learned that the Trans-Alaska Pipeline has provided shelter for Caribou during birthing that has tripled the size of their herds.



American economic growth (read, jobs) should not be held hostage to anti-business politics intended to cripple energy production.

[OldFriend]

The caribou have fur coats to keep warm, the citizens of this country need energy to keep warm.

Let the left turn off their heating systems, unheat their pools, stop flying private jets, etc. so there will be sufficient energy for the rest of us.

Till then, let them SHUT UP and get out of the way.

[LIConFem]

"A Quest for Oil Collides With Nature Liberal, Anti-Americanism in Alaska"

[hlmencken3]

The proposed development would use 2000-5000 acres of the 19 million acre ANWR.

http://www.anwr.org/archives/what_is_anwr_and_where_is_the_coastal_plain.php

[thackney]

we have learned that the Trans-Alaska Pipeline has provided shelter for Caribou during birthing that has tripled the size of their herds.

A lot better than tripled. With 30 years of contact with oil development to go by, the industry has shown that caribou and oil fields can successfully co-exist. The Central Arctic Herd, which calves in the vicinity of the Prudhoe Bay, Kuparuk, and Milne Point oil fields, has increased 900% from an estimated 3,000 animals in the early 1970s to 32,000 in 2002.

[martin_fierro]

Beat me to it.

[EricT.]

the citizens of this country need energy to keep warm.

And if that energy gets too expensive, they'll burn trees to stay warm. These greenies don't have enough synapses to rub together in order to think even a little bit ahead and consider the consequences of their ideology.

[airborne]

So paint the oil wells green and hang potted plants from them!

[thackney]

This article is not talking about ANWR. It is the National Petroleum Reserve, Alaska (NPRA). It used to be called the Naval Petroleum Reserve No. 4.

It has a comparable amount of oil as the ANWR coastal plain, but spread out of a much, much larger area.

U.S. Geological Survey 2002 Petroleum Resource Assessment of the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska (NPRA)

[Sam Cree]

Has there ever been a major "environmental" disaster due to oil drilling, does anyone know? I think the dangers are overblown, the agenda lies elsewhere as usual, IMO.

[thackney]

There has been spills in recent history. Disaster would depend on who you are talking to. On the North Slope, they are required to use a drip pan when fueling a vehicle. A drip falling on the ground must be prevented. Some environmentalists consider a gallon of oil a disaster, even in the areas where the oil naturally seeps to the surface.

[Sam Cree]

The worst one I can think of was the Exxon Valdez. But even with that, I don't know what lasting damage was done, especially that can compare to the lasting damage of financing all those maniacs in the Middle East.

[pabianice]

All eye wash. When gasoline goes above $6, a roar of outraged consumers will make the Ecofreaks run for the hills and we'll start using our huge oil reserves.

[thackney]

Exxon Valdez is far from the worst, just the most publicized. I took his question to be about spills in the area of drilling, not the transporation more than 1,000 miles away.

[an amused spectator]

Stop the drilling! Save the black flies and the giant mosquitoes!

[Sam Cree]

My question *was* about in the area of drilling, just the Valdez was the one that I know about. Also, I hadn't realized that it was 1,000 miles from the drilling point.

[PlanoMike]

The whole environmental anti oil thing started in the 1960's when Union Oil was drilling offshore in the Santa Barbara Channel. As I recall, the well kicked and the BOP (Blow Out Protector)didn't work to stop the blowout. This was caused by some lame brained idiot who installed the BOP stack upside down!!

Many poor birds met an untimely gooey end.

[PlanoMike]

Just had a Senior Moment! Make that "Blow Out Preventer" not "Blow Out Protector"!!

[OldFriend]

The Chappaquidick/Chappaqua crew would rather see trees burn than wind mills in their view.