Alaska governor launches bid to measure oil in Arctic refuge

News
May 20, 2013
 
Kim Murphy
 
For decades, war has been waged over the holy grail of America's Arctic frontier, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The wide coastal plain on the edge of the Beaufort Sea contains stunning populations of caribou, grizzly, musk oxen and other wildlife -- and also an abundant pool of oil and gas.
 
While Congress has periodically taken steps to consider opening up oil and gas development in the refuge, President Obama and many congressional Democrats have rebuffed any drilling on what conservationists often call America's Serengeti.
 
Alaska Gov. Sean Parnell, a Republican, launched a new bid Monday to at least determine what the argument is about. In a proposal to the U.S. Department of the Interior, Parnell said Alaska is willing to consider a $50-million contribution to launching a full oil exploration program in a section of the coastal plain, complete with modern 3D seismic studies.
 
The idea, Parnell said in an address to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, is to determine the true extent of what is believed to be billions of barrels of recoverable oil to inform the debate on whether part of the coastal plain should be opened for drilling.
 
"The federal government cannot legitimately evaluate impacts unless it knows the breadth of the oil and gas resources it stands to recover for Americans' benefit," Parnell told Chamber members in Washington, D.C., in a video address from Alaska.
 
 
Read the full article at the LA Times.