US congressmen look for permanent drilling ban in Alaska's ANWR
Washington (Platts)--5Jan2007
platts.com
A Democrat and a Republican in the US House introduced legislation Friday
for a permanent ban on oil and gas leasing or drilling in Alaska's Arctic
National Wildlife Refuge.
The Udall-Eisenhower Arctic Wilderness Act, introduced by Representatives
Edward Markey, a Democrat from Massachusetts, and Jim Ramstad, a Republican
from Minnesota, would designate the coastal plain of Alaska's Arctic Wildlife
Refuge as a wilderness area with permanent protections from commercial
activities.
"Our addiction to oil is real and enduring and still largely untreated,"
Markey said in a statement. "Drilling in the refuge would amount to a
declaration that we remain in denial about this addiction, its impact on our
planet and our obligation to future generations."
The coastal plain of ANWR has been at the heart of an ideological debate
between proponents and opponents of more US drilling.
Proponents say developing the reserve could be done in an environmentally
sensitive way, and that production from ANWR would reduce US dependence on
foreign oil, help lower oil and gasoline prices and bring billions of dollars
to the US Treasury.
But opponents say the amount of oil in the reserve does not justify
despoiling what they call a sensitive wilderness area.
Despite several near-misses in the past several years in
Republican-controlled Congresses, lawmakers have failed to pass bills to open
ANWR to oil and gas development.
The US Department of Interior estimates that ANWR's coastal plain holds
between 5.7 and 16 billion barrels of recoverable reserves, or at peak
production, up to 1 million b/d of new supply.
--Cathy Landry, cathy_landry@platts.com |
