WASHINGTON, DC, April 19, 2002 (ENS) - The coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is home to polar bears, wolves and millions of migratory birds. The region is also the birthing grounds for the 129,000 member Porcupine River caribou herd, and is considered sacred land by the Gwich'in Indians, a native people whose traditional lifestyle depends on the caribou.

This coastal plain also holds oil and gas that many Alaskans and members of the Bush administration believe holds the key to energy independence. Scientists believe upwards of 16 billion barrels of technically recoverable oil exist in the area.

Caribou in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Only five percent of Alaska's North Slope - the portion within ANWR - is currently closed to oil drilling. (Photo courtesy Alaska Wilderness League)

But the refuge will remain sacrosanct, at least for the present. With a 54-46 vote, the U.S. Senate voted Thursday to reject a proposal to open part of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska to oil exploration. Senate Republicans needed 60 votes to break a Democrat led filibuster of the amendment, introduced by Alaska's senators, to the Senate energy bill.

Unlike the House version of the bill, the Senate version will not include language to allow oil and natural gas drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Alaska Senators Frank Murkowski and Ted Stevens, both Republicans, and Senator John Breaux of Louisiana, a Democrat, had introduced the American Homeland Energy Security Act of 2002 as an amendment to the Senate energy bill on April 16.

The amendment gives the Commander-in-Chief, currently President George W. Bush, the authority "to safely explore for energy resources in a portion of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) and includes several provisions designed to ensure the area remains protected."

Alaska Senator Frank Murkowski (Photo courtesy Eureka County)

"America needs American oil from ANWR," said Senator Murkowski. "Today, almost two-thirds of our oil is imported from overseas - much of it from the Middle East. With ANWR open, we could cast off Saudi Arabian imports for more than three decades of Iraqi imports for more than a half-century. When we don't control our energy supply, someone else does. As long as that continues, we remain vulnerable to the whims of Middle East rulers."

But environmentalists say the amount of recoverable oil would only have fueled the United States for a maximum of six months at an unacceptable cost to one of the last pristine environments on Earth. Studies have shown it would take at least 10 years for the six month supply of oil to be procured from the proposed drilling area.

Carl Pope, executive director of the Sierra Club, said Thursday, "Today's vote is a big victory for America's environment, and we're thrilled that a majority of the Senate stood up to save this spectacular landscape. The public said they want the Arctic Refuge protected for future generations, and their senators heard them loud and clear."

The Murkowski-Stevens amendment would have opened the coastal plain of ANWR to energy exploration, limiting the acreage that could be developed at any one time to 2,000 acres (809 hectares). The same provision was written into the House energy bill passed last year.

Polar bears, already impacted by shrinking ice sheets, could suffer if oil drilling is allowed in the Refuge. (Photo courtesy ANWR)

Critics of the proposal said the 2,000 acre limit only accounted for the areas where oil facilities touch the ground - the drilling "footprint" - failed to consider the cumulative effects of the pipelines, roads, drilling pads and waste pits that would have to be built to extract oil from the refuge.

The underlying motivation for the push to drill in the refuge is concern about U.S. energy security, but at least one expert says security would not be enhanced by extracting oil from ANWR. At a Capitol Hill press conference Tuesday, former Director of Central Intelligence James Woolsey dismissed claims that opening the ANWR to oil drilling would improve America's national security.

"The bottom line is that we'll be dependent on the Middle East as long as we are dependent on oil," said Woolsey, who served as director of the Central Intelligence Agency from 1993 to 1995. "Drilling in ANWR is not a recipe for America's national security. The only answer is to use substantially less petroleum."

"A key vulnerability of drilling in the Arctic Refuge is the Trans-Alaska Pipeline," said Woolsey. "It was shut down last fall by a drunk who shot one bullet, it has been sabotaged and incompetently bombed twice, and these people are children compared with the sophistication of people who attacked us September 11."

But Roger Hererra, DC coordinator for Arctic Power, a group of Alaskan businesses in favor of the drilling, says, "The battle is still being waged. Opening the Coastal Plain is inevitable. It's the only thing that will have a significant impact on national security."

Senator Joe Lieberman (center) and Senator John Kerry (right) declare victory after Senate vote against drilling in ANWR. (Photo courtesy Office of Senator Lieberman)

Following the Senate vote, Senator Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, a Democrat, declared victory. Lieberman helped lead the filibuster against the plan. "The Senate has spoken," Lieberman said. "We've sent this misguided plan to the refinery, and now it's our obligation to be constructive, collaborative, and creative in guiding the nation toward a better way."

Lieberman said his opposition to the plan is rooted in the irreversible damage it would do to the unspoiled wilderness of the refuge. The U.S. Geological Survey recently released an exhaustive, 12 year report confirming the environmental destruction that would occur if drilling moved forward.

Lieberman and other critics such as Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts, a Democrat, argue drilling would do far too little to change the skewed foreign oil dependency equation.

The Bush administration's own Energy Department concluded that drilling would reduce America's dependence on foreign oil by only two percent 20 years from now.

"This is one of the most important votes cast on the environment this Congress," said John Flicker, president of the National Audubon Society. "Every crisis and excuse imaginable was used as a reason to drill the Arctic Refuge. Common sense prevailed and the summer home of millions of migratory birds will be there for them in the years to come."

Immediately after the vote, Arctic Power Executive Director Kim Duke, weighed in with the opposite opinion. "In addition to ignoring the critical national security implications of our need for increased domestic production, the Majority also ignored the voice of organized labor and the Native Alaskans who live and own land in ANWR."

Three bears on the Alaska Pipeline. Arctic Power says wildlife can co-exist with oil production. (Photo courtesy Arctic Power)

"By failing to pass these amendments," said Al Adams, Arctic Power Board Member and deputy special assistant for resource development for the North Slope Borough, "the Senate failed not only the Inupiat land holders in the Coastal Plain and Alaskans who rely on a resource economy, but all Americans who face rising gas prices and greater dependence on foreign and unstable sources of oil."

The Senate must still consider about 40 proposed amendments to the energy bill before it can pass the legislation, including a host of tax credits and incentives for various segments of the energy industry. And after the bill clears the Senate, a conference committee will have to resolve differences between the House and Senate versions of the measure, including whether to approve Arctic drilling.

"It feels great to have won this vote to protect the Arctic Refuge, but the oil industry isn't finished with its attempt to destroy this natural treasure," said the Sierra Club's Pope.

Jerry Hood, special assistant for energy policy to James Hoffa, president of the Teamsters Union which supports the drilling, says too that the battle over ANWR is not over. "I am extremely disappointed in those members of the U.S. Senate who purport to be friends of organized labor and working American families. They are not and they proved that by their votes today. This issue is far from over and in the end we will prevail."

Copyright Environment News Service (ENS) 2002. All rights reserved.