United States Senator Lisa Murkowski

ANWR

In an effort to find a compromise on drilling in the Arctic coastal plain, Sen. Murkowski has introduced legislation to permit oil and gas to be siphoned from underneath the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), but without any permanent roads, wells, buildings, pipelines or structures in ANWR proper. This bill (S. 503) is called the No Surface Occupancy Western Arctic Coastal Plain Domestic Energy Security Act (S.503). For three decades, a controversy has raged over whether oil and natural gas development should occur from the 1.5 million acres of the coastal plain located inside the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the area is likely to contain 10.36 billion barrels of oil and 8.6 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, and it has 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. Environmentalists, however, have argued that the area cannot be developed without causing disturbance and perhaps environmental damage to the surface of the refuge.

New technology, however, has been developed that offers a compromise solution, one that could allow energy production without any chance of surface damage or disturbance to wildlife. Even though Sen. Murkowski strongly feels that ANWR's coastal plain can be developed using environmentally sensitive means that will have no impact on wildlife, her new compromise solution is to permit oil and gas development without any surface occupancy, meaning without any permanent structures above the ground within ANWR itself. This is now possible because extended reach directional drilling technology permits oil wells to be drilled from the western Alaska state-owned lands, outside of the refuge's boundary, or from state waters to the north, and still be able to tap oil and gas deposits located between eight and 10 miles inside the refuge. That could allow most of the estimated 6.4 billion barrels in the northwest corner of ANWR to be developed without any summer-time impacts on the wildlife refuge.

While current technology limitations allow us to reach only a fraction of ANWR oil, oil and gas technology is rapidly advancing. As technology further develops, more of the underground reserves will be able to be developed. More importantly, Sen. Murkowski's bill serves as a compromise that she hopes her colleagues can be persuaded to accept. It would allow for our Nation to increase its domestic supply of oil quickly, a critical need in this time of volatile prices, and it would be harmless to the wildlife and ecosystem of ANWR itself. Additionally, the bill would funnel up to hundreds of billions of dollars toward construction of renewable energy projects over the life of the development project. Given that the Administration is seeking at least $15 billion a year to fund renewable energy, this measure could go a long way toward meeting the Administration's goal to pay for green, renewable energy in the future. The debate over ANWR has raged for decades. In this era of change, it is the senator's hope that her bill can change the tone of the debate, making it possible to have oil and gas production and responsible environmental stewardship.