This area would NOT be touched.
Only a small portion of this part of ANWR will be explored.
Posted on 04/02/2002 3:58:53 AM PST by kattracks
Capitol Hill (CNSNews.com) - If you've seen the lush green vegetation and animals frolicking through the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, you haven't seen the part of ANWR where oil exploration would be conducted under the Bush administration's energy plan, according to Interior Secretary Gale Norton.
In a letter to major news outlets around the country, Norton described the president's initiative to allow "environmentally sensitive energy production" in the far north slope of ANWR, commonly called the "10-02 Area." The Secretary's letter included a videotape of the region.
"I think it is important that you have video of the actual part of ANWR being discussed, so that your viewers can have a more accurate understanding of the issue," Norton wrote in her letter to more than a dozen network news anchors and talk show hosts.
"Frequently during the energy debate," Norton continued, "I have watched television programs feature video that resembles ANWR's Brooks Range. This area is designated wilderness in the central portion of the Refuge - and is not the area proposed for energy development."
Norton's letter went on to explain the steps the administration has proposed to even further limit the potential environmental impact of exploration and production, including only allowing work between November and May, outside the normal breeding months for all species that might enter the area. The plan also requires companies to use "ice roads" that melt each spring, protecting the underlying tundra.
"Moreover, the administration will require directional drilling and smaller production pads, so that energy exploration can be accomplished utilizing just 2,000 of the 1002 Area's 1.5 million acres," Norton concluded.
The "coastal plain" that is potentially available for energy exploration is only 8 percent of the 19 million acres that comprise ANWR. The 2000 acres actually authorized for exploration under the Bush energy plan encompass 0.08 percent of the Refuge.
A spokesman for Norton says the office of Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) called Friday afternoon inquiring about how much the Interior Department had spent on the video.
"So we did the tally to see how much money we invested," said Mark Pfeifle.
"ANWR videos: $95.81. Postage to send ANWR videos to network news anchors: $43.55. Informing Americans about what the real Alaska North Slope looks like in the dead of winter: Priceless," Pfeifle added, borrowing a theme from the popular series of Mastercard\super\'d2\nosupersub commercials.
The video was originally produced for Arctic Power, a group that describes itself as "a grassroots, non-profit citizen's organization with 10,000 members founded in April of 1992 to expedite congressional and presidential approval of oil exploration and production within the Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge."
The group includes miners, fishermen, loggers, tourism operators, transportation businesses, labor unions, banks, non-profit organizations, local elected officials, and others. It receives approximately two-thirds of its funding from the Alaska state legislature.
Pfeifle says providing the video to major television outlets was necessary, because most had been using video provided by opponents of energy exploration in ANWR.
"Using footage from the anti-energy independence crowd is about reliable as having your fortune told by Miss Cleo on the Psychic Readers Network," he added.
Little by little, Pfeifle believes the administration is getting its message to the public.
"With new technologies, with tough regulation, and with common sense management, we can protect wildlife and produce energy in an environmentally responsible way in ANWR's 1002 Area," he concluded.
Markey, who has long opposed energy exploration in ANWR, as well as the entire nuclear energy industry, did not respond to a request for an interview or comment for this story.
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Problem is, precious few will get the administration's message without the pre-filtering and digesting by the all-seeing, all-knowing news media, on whom the sheeple rely to get spoon-fed every opinion they regard as their own.
This area would NOT be touched.
Only a small portion of this part of ANWR will be explored.
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