The Bill Clinton presidency will bring crucial issues into sharp focus for the U.S. oil and gas business-one issue in particular. Clinton probably will entertain proposals to make the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge Coastal Plain a federal wilderness. The outcome will have permanent consequences for the U.S. petroleum industry-and not just for companies that want leases there.
The question is no longer whether Congress should allow leasing of the ANWR Coastal Plain. The question likely to emerge in the next 4 years is whether Congress should ban ANWR leasing forever. With their answers, Clinton and Congress will harden their country's stance on energy, the environment, natural resources, and economic growth. Industry must show how mistakes in these matters conflict with Clinton's goals for the economy.
WHAT ANWR MEANS
Many major oil companies have given up the fight and all but abandoned world-scale exploration in the U.S. Earlier this year, the American Petroleum Institute cut its lobbying activities on behalf of federal lands access. For those reasons and others, resisting ANWR wilderness designation will be more difficult than winning congressional approval for ANWR leasing-and the leasing effort failed. But companies-including majors now focused overseas and independents too small to drill on the Coastal Plain-must try.
The ANWR Coastal Plain symbolizes the destructive power of exaggerated environmentalism. Leasing opponents who once called the area a wasteland now declare it the crown jewel of U.S. wilderness. They cite beautiful, pristine parts of ANWR where no one wants to drill as areas under threat. So far, their deceptions have worked.
If extremists keep their undue influence, problems for industry and the U.S. economy won't stop at ANWR. When extremists can block leasing of an arctic swamp whose principal value is mineral potential, they can stop activity on federal land everywhere. They can persuade lawmakers to treat drilling and production waste as hazardous substances. They can turn oil field accidents into federal crimes. They can force refineries out of business with excessive regulation.
The coming vote on ANWR wilderness designation thus will say much about the future of the oil industry-all of it. And the industry can win if it speaks not just about ANWR, not just about interests of specific companies, but about reconciliation of natural values and human well-being. A vote not to make ANWR a wilderness or, better yet, to lease the Coastal Plain is not beyond hope. It would show that the government recognizes the links between energy use and economic growth. It would show appreciation for the benefits of domestically produced petroleum to economic growth, to the balance of trade, to employment, to security. It would symbolize, in line with candidate Clinton's campaign theme, change.
A FIGHT FOR EVERYTHING
If President-elect Clinton doesn't understand these connections yet he can learn. He is intelligent. He has not been openly hostile toward the oil business. He can listen.
The next battle over ANWR will be the fight for everything. An industry defeat would institutionalize a dreary present. But an industry victory would mean real change in a nation that desperately needs to rediscover its ability to turn natural riches into human progress. It would help to loosen the grip of an environmentally frantic government now choking exploration, production, refining, and general economic growth. It would mean that for activities crucial to national interests, the U.S. is once again open for business. Whatever the odds, industry--all of it--must fight this battle to the end.
Copyright 1992 Oil & Gas Journal. All Rights Reserved.
