Essay Database

The Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act of 1980 established the 19 million-acres of what is now called the Artic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) (fig. 3). In this original act, Congress decided to hold off on making a decision on how to manage the one and a half million-acre coastal plain due to the area's potentially enormous oil and gas resources and its importance as a wildlife habitat. In 1987, the Department of the Interior submitted a report to …

…This policy is not only failing to maximize profit, but it is potentially disastrous. Oil exploration in the ANWR should start as soon as possible. The Alaskan environment has thrived while oil has been produced under the strictest environmental standards in the world. In closing, an Alaskan pollster once said "More oil seeps out of cars each day in the average Wal-Mart parking lot than has been spilled in Alaska during the past twenty-five years."