It's an open secret in Washington the National Energy Strategy (NES) very likely will propose leasing and exploration on the Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
ANWR, just east of Prudhoe Bay field, appears to be the nation's last best hope for a billion barrel oil field. Naturally, industry wants to drill it.
President Bush supports ANWR leasing, as do the Departments of Energy and Interior. He is expected to sign off on the NES early in 1991.
ENVIRONMENTAL WARNING
Last week, 16 environmental groups warned at a Washington press conference they never will accept ANWR exploration as part of an energy strategy.
They said NES should stress conservation, with the goal of reducing U.S. oil dependence 20% by 2000 "using least cost strategies that do not compromise environmental protection or infringe upon sensitive ecosystems like ANWR."
Gaylord Nelson of the Wilderness Society said, "We fully expect the president will use the Persian Gulf confrontation as an excuse to call for exploration and development of some of the rarest, most fragile of our nation's vanishing wildlands. At the top of the list will be ANWR.
"Now, the president certainly will say that drilling in the refuge will somehow make the U.S. more 'secure.' The fact is that the U.S., which holds only 4% of the world's oil reserves, always will be subject to world price swings and disruptions of oil supplies-unless, of course, we follow a national energy strategy that reduces our dependence on all oil, not just imported oil."
Brooks Yeager of the National Audubon Society said there is no possible compromise on ANWR.
"If the president's energy strategy is built on the wish lists of the energy industries, on subsidies for production of fossil fuels, on despoliation of wildernesses and wildlife refuges, or on resuscitation of the dying U.S. nuclear industry, it will not work, and it will be dead on arrival.
"A policy based on the security of the oil industry is not the same as a policy to make the American economy less dependent on oil."
Jay Hair, National Wildlife Federation president, said, "it is the height of folly to think we can increase our energy security by ravaging the pristine beauty of the arctic refuge or the Outer Continental Shelf or the host of environmentally fragile areas in the northern Rockies likely to be targeted for drilling.
"Exploiting these resources will extend, not end, our oil dependence. And so long as we rely on oil to fuel our transportation needs, we will be eternally dependent on unstable foreign supply sources."
ANOTHER BACKDOWN?
You may recall that, in the face of intractable environmental opposition, Bush backed down and postponed a number of controversial offshore lease sales.
The green groups clearly want to pressure the "environmental president" into a repeat performance.
And even if Bush stands firm, they have an excellent chance when the NES goes to Congress. Lawmakers have been loath to allow ANWR leasing in the past.
ANWR leasing probably won't be the only politically charged proposal in the NES. But it could be the first to go.
Copyright 1990 Oil & Gas Journal. All Rights Reserved.
