Drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge

Essay by tigerwithnUniversity, Bachelor'sB+, January 2009

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I. Drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is a safe and necessary act in order to eliminate our dependency on foreign resources?a.Drilling in ANWR is safe for the environment.

i.Experience gained at Prudhoe Bay and Kuparuk along with rapidly evolving drilling and production techniques will further minimize environmental impacts and surface use in future frontier arctic petroleum provinces such as ANWR.

ii. Another innovation is in designer wells. These are drilled with a high degree of precision to reach small oil targets, several small oil pockets or to reach through or around faults to isolated traps.

b.Drilling in ANWR will create an economic boost for Alaska.

i.Development of the ANWR plain would create between 250,000 and 735,000 new jobs.

ii. Construction of these tankers would directly create about 2,000 stable construction jobs in the U.S. shipbuilding industry and about 3,000 other jobs in the U.S.

economy during the initial 17 year construction period. In all, opening a small fraction of ANWR would result in a total of over 90,000 job-years.

c.Drilling in ANWR will be safe for the wildlife.

i.Oil field facilities have been located and designed to accommodate wildlife and utilize the least amount of tundra surface.

ii.Oil and gas development and wildlife are successfully coexisting in Alaska's arctic. For example, the Central Arctic Caribou Herd (CACH) which migrates through Prudhoe Bay has grown from 3000 animals to its current level of 32,000 animals. The arctic oil fields have very healthy brown bear, fox and bird populations equal to their surrounding areas.

II.Drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is a reckless and unnecessary act that will not eliminate our dependency to use foreign resources?a.Drilling in the ANWR is not safe for the environment.

i.Any physical disturbance like bulldozer tracks, seismic oil exploration, spills of oil and other toxic substances can scar the land for decades.

ii.The environmental welfare of ANWR is at stake if we decide to drill for oil. Oil producers have not demonstrated that they can operate without harming the environment. Their irresponsible work ethics have harmed the North Slope enough.

b.Drilling in the ANWR is not going to create an economic boost for Alaska.

i.Party's that are going to affected negatively if drilling is allowed will be the residents of Alaska, such as the human population as well as the wildlife population.

ii.The economic portion will be affected will involve jobs, possible tax increase, and loss of income in case of human error.

c.Drilling in ANWR will not be beneficial for the wildlife.

i.Hazardous waste contaminates water and wetlands.

ii. The past practices for oil drilling, spill prevention, and disposal of waste material, like chemicals, have not shown satisfactory at the North Slope. If these unethical practices are not corrected now what are we to expect if oil producers begin to drill in ANWR? The loss of wildlife could be an outcome of the many pipeline oils spills reported yearly. We know there will be oil spill. We should not place ANWR at risk, because ANWR is not a long term solution to our oil consumption.

Sam, S. (2006) New Energy Bill Reducing our Dependence on Foreign Oil, Oil Crisis News from around the world Retrieved June 30, 2007 fromhttp://www.hubbertpeak.com/news/article.asp?id=7058Marsden,S. (2001, October 24) Vantage Point Crisis underscores need to reduce foreign oil dependency, retrieved June 28, 2007 from http://news-service.stanford.edu/news/2001/october24/energyvantage.