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After 1991's nationwide outpouring of grassroots opposition
to drilling the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge - and the
Sierra Club's climactic victory over the Johnston-Wallop
energy bill you may have thought Alaska's last unspoiled
stretch of coastal wilderness was safe, at least for the
moment, from the clutches of Big Oil. If so, think again. In
the 104th Congress, the ends justify the means. And in order
to open the arctic coastal plain to oil exploration,
industry allies have hit on a characteristically sneaky
strategy: build dubious revenues from oil leases into the
1996 budget bill, thereby dumping on Clinton's desk a choice
between preserving 125 miles of Alaska's North Slope or
keeping the U.S. government operational. In contrast to
1991, when Sierra Club activists had nearly a year to rally
wilderness supporters, the 1995 legislative battle could be
over by fall. "This is a back-door attack on our last arctic
wilderness," said Melinda Pierce, the Club's Arctic Refuge
specialist in Washington, D.C. "The oil lobby can't
persuade Americans to let it ravage the refuge, so it's
decided to sneak in while the public is asleep. Unless we
sound the alarm, (Alaska Sen. Frank) Murkowski will be right
when he calls it the `Arctic Oil Reserve.'" Backed by
legislators from heavily oil dependent states like Alaska and
Louisiana, multinational petroleum companies have long
looked to the Arctic Refuge as the likely successor to
Alaska's Prudhoe Bay, where full-scale drilling has caused
significant environmental damage. Comparable operations in
the remote Arctic Refuge would bring not only massive oil
rigs, but a 1,700 acre network of roadways connecting 100
miles of pipeline, production facilities, airfields, gravel
pits and water treatment plants.
And all this in a region known as "America's Serengeti," a
sanctuary for polar bears, musk-oxen, wolverines, millions
of migratory birds, and the 160,000-strong Porcupine caribou
herd, which migrates from Canada each spring to
use the coastal plain as its principal calving ground. The
native Gwich'in people depend on the caribou for their
survival.
The Sierra Club spearheaded efforts to protect the refuge in
1991, when President Bush made the opening of the 1.5
million-acre stretch of coast the only section
of Alaska's northern coast still offlimits to development
the cornerstone of his "National Energy Strategy." The
Kennebunkport Texan's oilbased strategy was written into
legislation proposed by Sens. Malcolm Wallop (R-Wyo.) and J.
Bennett Johnston (D-La.), then the chairman of the pivotal
Senate Energy Committee. On Nov. 1, 1991 - after months
of all-out grassroots organizing by Club activists, and with
the Gulf War still fresh in Americans' minds - the Johnston-
Wallop bill suffered a crushing defeat on the floor of
the Senate.
Today, however, the Gulf War has given way to the War on the
Environment. And the Gingrich-Dole 104th is not about to
charge headlong into near-certain defeat. Instead, the
anti-environmentalist caucuses in both houses of Congress have
simply written revenues from arctic oil leasing into their
balanced-budget resolution, assuming billions of dollars in
revenues over the next seven years. Procedural questions
aside, critics say the projections are grossly inflated,
especially given Interior Department studies suggesting
minuscule odds of a commercially viable strike.
Between now and the fall - actual deadlines are proving
slippery - Congress will have to approve a specific budget for
the 1996 fiscal year, and offer amendments to make
any needed changes in existing law. In the case of the
Arctic, that task is expected to be left to the Senate
Energy Committee, now headed by Murkowski(R), and the House
Resources Committee, chaired by Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska),
another longtime advocate of opening the coastal plain. So
Club leaders are gearing up for battles on the floors of the
House and Senate, where they hope to strip any drilling
provisions from the final `96 budget. Should drilling
advocates prevail in floor votes, it would then be up to the
president to veto the entire bill - the notorious "train
wreck" scenario. Only a new chorus of public opposition to
arctic drilling, warn Club leaders, can prevent Congress -
which knows only too well how Americans feel about the
Alaskan wilderness - from surreptitiously handing one of the
nation's great public treasures over to private oil
interests. "We can keep the refuge pristine and protected,
just as we did in 1991," says Pierce. "But time's running
out. We need to act now." To take action: Urge your
representative and senators to make sure arctic drilling is
not included in the 1996 budget or anywhere else, for that
matter.
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