Bush contradicts Everglade preservation with Arctic Refuge drilling
Jeremy Hynd
Staff Writer
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At a rally in Bicentennial Park on April 6, The Alaska Coalition of Tennessee's members protested against potential drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). The issue has been a hot topic for debate in recent congressional hearings.
ANWR drilling passed the House but has met stiff competition in the Senate, where supporters have enough votes to pass the bill but lack the votes to overcome a promised, mostly Democratic, filibuster.
A major provision for the bill to pass the house was a 2,000 acre limit for oil development in the refuge. Opponents of the measure argue that loopholes exist allowing oil companies to develop well over that limit.
Oil companies would be allowed to drill any number of sites provided that the total area affected did not exceed 2,000 acres. There are around 30 prospective reservoirs in the refuge. Pipelines would be necessary to transport oil from each reservoir to the Trans-Alaska pipeline which would mean that permanent roads to maintain the them would be required. The pipelines and roads, despite crisscrossing the region and destroying habitats, would not count in the project's total acreage. This would cause as much damage to the environment as the actual drilling.
ANWR drilling supporters argue that the proposal would significantly reduce U.S. reliance on foreign, specifically Arab, oil. The Energy Department estimates that the United States will import 62 percent of its oil in the year 2020. With ANWR oil, however 60 percent of oil would still need to be imported.
Some 3.7 billion to 16 billion barrels of oil are estimated to be located in the refuge. Depending on the exact amount produced, arctic oil could last from several months to, at most, two years. Oil produced from the area would appear on the market no earlier than 2010.
Supporters of ANWR drilling initially argued that 700,000 jobs could be created as a result. Recent estimates have decreased to only 46,000, most of which would be temporary.
Oil companies have avoided direct support for Arctic drilling and deem the project risky. Those that would drill in the refuge face the added expenses of promised lawsuits from environmental groups as well as the prospect that a future congress or president could block or cancel drilling, causing them to lose millions of dollars in investments.
A counterproposal to ANWR drilling championed by Sens. John McCain (R-AZ) and John Kerry (D-MA) attempted to increase the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards for the first time since 1975, but lost by a close vote. The bill would have reduced oil consumption by more than one million barrels per day.
Despite President Bush's previous lack of concern for the environment, he recently backed a National Park Service plan to restrict access of off-road vehicles in Florida's Everglades and Big Cyprus parks.
Bush's support of environmentalists in Florida comes in an election year for his brother Governor Jeb Bush. Political experts believe the President's motives are to win key Florida green votes for the 2004 presidential election and to aid the Governor in his re-election efforts, a charge the White House denies. Political alliances are evenly split between Republicans and Democrats in Florida and have produced extremely close elections in recent years, including the 2000 presidential election that led to months of controversy.
Last summer, the Bush administration dramatically curbed off-shore oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico despite supporting an energy plan that called for more oil production within the U.S. The move was made to appease environmentalists who had applied much political pressure against Governor Bush.
Regardless of its sudden support in Florida, the Bush administration continues to anger environmentalists.