by Gina DeBarthe, Ozark Chapter Conservation Committee Chair
National Security is a buzzword a lot of politicians are using lately. It seems that every bill going through Congress is important because it is for national security.
This call is especially loud when it comes drilling the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska. The Arctic Refuge is home to a rich diversity of life, including polar bears, caribou, wolves, and migrating birds. Drilling in the coastal plain of the refuge will alter it significantly. Proponents of drilling claim that only 2,000 acres will be disturbed. What they don't say is that these 2,000 acres are not contiguous. The acres are added up by how much space the physical drill, pipeline, and processing plant will take up. The oil companies would be able to build a web of these that will potentially affect more than 2,000 acres.
Those who support drilling in the Arctic Refuge claim that this is a national security issue, because it will reduce our dependency on foreign oil. The United States uses 25% of the world's oil supply. We have less than 5% of that supply in oil reserves. In fact, if we did drill in the Arctic Refuge we would gain less than a 9-month supply and it would be ten years before that oil would reach the market. There isn’t enough oil in our reserves to meet the current demand. Drilling the Arctic is a not a solution.
Efficiency on the other hand is a viable solution. If tire companies sold replacement tires that were as fuel efficient as those on new cars, 5.4 billion barrels of oil would be saved. That is more oil than geologists expect to find in the Arctic Refuge. If auto companies increased fuel standards on new cars and trucks to 40 miles per gallon, it would save three million barrels of oil every day. That is more oil than we would get from the Arctic Refuge, Persian Gulf imports, and off-shore drilling in California combined.
Please contact Senator Bond and Senator Carnahan and ask them to oppose any bills that would allow drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The Capital Switchboard is (202) 224-3121.