Article Title: ANWR
Author:W. Wayt Gibbs
Keypoints:
- Plane tracks feeder pipelines that zig westward to Kuparuk, second only to Prudhoe among the most oil-rich onshore fields yet found in North America
- Kuparuk has grown since its opening in 1981 into a scattershot of gravel well pads connected over 800 square miles by a web of roads and pipes to giant processing plants, camp buildings, vehicle lots, and dark pits full of rock and mud drilled from the deep
- Industry executives often cite this nearly roadless, 94-acre project as a model of environmentally and financially responsible oil development, proof that oil companies have learned how to coexist with delicate Arctic ecosystems
- Alpine is the newest and westernmost of the North Slope oil fields, but not for long. When its valves opened in November 2000, crude oil flowed the 50 miles back to Pump Station 1 near Deadhorse - as all oil produced on the slope must - via a new tributary to the pipeline system
- By February, Alpine’s production had already hit the plant’s maximum output of almost 90,000 barrels a day
- Soaring gas prices
- spurred North Slope companies last year to commit $75 million to plan a $10-billion natural gas pipeline that would open some 35 trillion cubic feet of untapped reserves to the lower American states by the end of the decade
- The same act placed the 1002 Area inside the 19-millionacre Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), in deference to biologists’ observations that the coastal plain provides a pre- mium Arctic habitat: calving ground for the Porcupine caribou herd; nesting and staging wetlands for tundra swans and other migratory waterfowl; dens for polar bears and arctic foxes; and year-round forage for a small herd of muskoxen
- On February 26, Senator Frank H. Murkowski of Alaska introduced S. 389, a bill that would open the 1002 Area to oil and gas exploration and production
- The bill allows the Bureau of Land Management to restrict the activities to ensure that they “will result in no significant adverse effect on the fish and wildlife, their habitat, subsistence resources and the environment.”
- Some 245 biologists, not waiting to be asked, signed an open letter to President Bill Clinton last November urging him to bypass Congress and declare the area a wilderness, which would close it to development
Summary:
In this article the author talks over the debate and arguing between the oil Alaska holds. Alaska is known to hold the best large quantity supply of animal reserve as well and oil reserve. Drilling companies are suggesting that new technological methods for extracting oil from underground will have no major effects on the surrounding environment. Scientists argue that effects can be accounted for as long as ten years for just surveying the land, and other sorts of pollution including noise, air, and water pollution may occur affecting all wild life in this region. The discussion is how much more important is oil for at least a decade and preserving maybe one of the last few wildlife reserves.
In this article the author talks over the debate and arguing between the oil Alaska holds. Alaska is known to hold the best large quantity supply of animal reserve as well and oil reserve. Drilling companies are suggesting that new technological methods for extracting oil from underground will have no major effects on the surrounding environment. Scientists argue that effects can be accounted for as long as ten years for just surveying the land, and other sorts of pollution including noise, air, and water pollution may occur affecting all wild life in this region. The discussion is how much more important is oil for at least a decade and preserving maybe one of the last few wildlife reserves.
My thoughts:
I believe in the idea that drilling companies shouldn't interfere with with oil extraction in any kind of reserve. As oil reaches its peak, so will the resolution for newer less harmful methods of consuming energy. With alternative energies in place, the demand for older methods will be as low to the point where it isn't even taken into consideration. This transition in time will help find solutions to our economy and our benefit in preserving the environment.
I believe in the idea that drilling companies shouldn't interfere with with oil extraction in any kind of reserve. As oil reaches its peak, so will the resolution for newer less harmful methods of consuming energy. With alternative energies in place, the demand for older methods will be as low to the point where it isn't even taken into consideration. This transition in time will help find solutions to our economy and our benefit in preserving the environment.
So what?The oil in ANWR could provide energy
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Says who?The author W. Wayt Gibbs
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What if?What if the oil was not located in ANWR
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This reminds me of...This reminds me of deforestation as it gives benefits to us but not for the animals.
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