ANWR oil riles world’s greens

Alaska’s North Slope is once again in the national news and as usual the combatants are the people of this state vs. the world’s environmental zealots.

In a sensible world one would think that reason will prevail and the Arctic Coast of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) will be evaluated for its resource potential and the best interests of Alaska’s people and the nation as a whole.

But if you think common sense will easily dictate a solution you must be new in town.

Oil and gas development in Alaska’s Arctic has been going on for about five decades. What became the big North Slope discovery was in the works when my wife and I got here in 1967. At that time explorers had already found oil and gas on the Kenai Peninsula and new development was underway in Cook Inlet.

And a few geologists were convinced that major discoveries were possible much farther north, where drilling was then underway. They proved to be right and in 1968 Richfield Oil announced its big find. The environmental community came unglued and years of struggle ensued, but the good guys won and North Slope operations created jobs for our people and revenues for our government.

The new battle is especially problematic since the area this state seeks to develop for its hydrocarbon potential is on the coast of a national wildlife refuge. That, as you might expect, has the world’s environmental community coming unglued and vowing to fight to the end.

But Alaska has a legitimate claim to oil lands on the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The state itself, as well as various oil companies, owns some of the leases under which the petroleum reserves are known to exist.

The overall refuge is a vast area of the northeast corner of this state. It covers almost 19.3 million acres, much of which is appropriately reserved for our marvelous collection of wild creatures. And where such land is so reserved a large wild land area is similarly protected.

The administration of President Joe Biden is trying to block any ANWR development, in large part because the area is in a massive wildlife refuge. Setting that much land aside in such an area is understandably controversial. And once again the State of Alaska and its people find themselves in a struggle with the world’s environmental community.

But this time the nation’s President and its political leaders will almost certainly have to hear our side of things and make a reasoned decision. The North Slope Borough, the Arctic Slope Regional Corporation and the Alaska Industrial Development Corporation (AIDEA) have sued President Biden to block his attempts to lock up the Arctic Coastal Plain.

The state and the Native corporations have a financial interest in the leases and the coastal acreage involved. That resulted from the state’s participation in bidding at a recent federal lease sale.

The ANWR Coastal Plain has some wonderful wildlife resources but beneath the land they occupy is some of the most promising oil and gas potential left in Alaska. Those resources need to be protected from harmful development operations but those operations should go forward in the best interests of the state and its people.

The state’s suit is moving forward because, as the legal filings note, such a development would meet two important criteria — “be a good financial investment and have community support.”

Any development in such an area, especially something like a national wildlife refuge, needs to be undertaken with great care and appropriate environmental protections. We have seen such operations in wildlife refuges on the Kenai Peninsula and the results have been positive both for the economy and our wild areas.

The state of Alaska, its leaders and most of its people support the oil development and will be watching closely as it proceeds.