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of the Refuge being opened to oil drilling. In our view, there is no safe way to drill for oil and not displace the Porcupine Caribou herd. The caribou are our life-blood, our subsistence resource," says Gwich'in activist Adeline Peter Raboff, one of the Native Alaskan delegation who toured the islands last month.
The native Inupiat Eskimos are also dependent on the caribou, but to a lesser extent, as their traditional lands hug the coast. Whaling and fishing are central to their survival and possible offshore oil exploration, enabled by infrastructure development in the Arctic Refuge, would also threaten Inupiat traditional practices.
In 1987, the U.S Department of Interior stated in a report to Congress that if drilling were allowed, "The wilderness character of the coastal plain would be irretrievably lost." (Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Alaska, Coastal Plain Resource Assessment, Report to Congress, April 1987). British Petroleum spokesman Ronnie Chappell stated in the Los Angeles Times in July 1997, "We can't develop fields and keep wilderness."
Proponents argue that since 1987, new drilling techniques would radically reduce the "footprint" of drilling operations by using lateral drilling, sending "shafts" out at an angle so that many wells could radiate like spokes from one drilling hub. But environmentalists argue that the wells would still have to be supported by a vast, invasive infrastructure.
"Although technological advances have reduced the size of individual drilling pads, the North Slope oil fields continue to sprawl across America's Arctic with new roads, pipelines, drill sites and production facilities constructed each year," argues the "Myths and Facts" Web page.
Robert Redford, board member of the National Resources Defense Council, says in a letter dated 1/11/05, "The Arctic Refuge represents everything spectacular and everything endangered about America's natural heritage. It embodies a million years of ecological serenity . . . a vast stretch of pristine wilderness . . . By unlocking the Arctic Refuge, they hope to open the door for oil, gas and coal giants to invade our last and best wild places: our western canyon lands, our ancient forests, our coastal waters, even our national monuments."
That statement might seem a little far-fetched to some until you look deeper. On Tuesday, September 23, 2003, during a closed-door session of the House GOP leadership, House Majority Leader Tom Delay (R-Texas) said that the battle in Congress to open up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil exploration is a fight over whether energy exploration will be allowed in similarly sensitive areas in the future.
Reporter John Bresnahan, working for the Washington D.C.-based publication Roll Call interviewed several Republican leaders, some of whom expressed surprise over Delay's statement. Bresnahan reported, "Delay insisted that backing down on ANWR would be a mistake for those who support the measure, popular with the oil industry, although Delay also acknowledged that the provision was likely to fare poorly in the Senate because of opposition from Democrats and GOP moderates."
"'It's about the precedent,' Delay told the assembled Republican leaders while making several references to the 'symbolism of ANWR,'" reported Bresnahan, citing GOP sources.
The Hawai'i Connection
As members of the Senate's Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska and Daniel Inouye of Hawai'i have long partnered to bring millions of dollars of military expansion funds and other federal moneys to their states.
Chuck Neubauer and Richard T. Cooper of the Los Angeles Times reported, in a 2003 article entitled "Senator's Way to Wealth Was Paved With Favors," that "Federal spending in Alaska, known locally as 'Stevens money,' runs as much as 70 percent above the national average on a per-capita basis."
The Times reporters also noted, "For more than 20 years, Stevens has been chairman or ranking member of the Senate's Defense Appropriations Subcommittee. Since 1997, he has been chairman or ranking member of the full Appropriations Committee, which must approve every dollar of federal discretionary spending each year."
Hawai'i residents are well aware of Sen. Inouye's similar success in bringing federal pork money to our state.
Senator Akaka's push to implement the "Native Hawaiian Recognition Bill," now known as the Akaka/Stevens Bill, has similarly called on the Hawai'i delegation's close ties to Alaska.
The Akaka/Stevens bill would begin the process for Native Hawaiians to be recognized by the U.S. government as an indigenous people. It would establish the beginnings of a framework for Native Hawaiian governance. That government would then be empowered to negotiate with the United States and the State of Hawai'i over the disposition of Na
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