Twelve years after the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska, oil drilling and transport still threaten to contaminate pristine Arctic ecosystems. This year, President George W. Bush will press to open a portion of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling, despite warnings that more drilling will lead to more air and water pollution.
Saturday marks the 12th anniversary of the 1989 oil spill from the tanker Exxon Valdez. The tanker spilled 11 million gallons of oil into Alaska's Prince William Sound, polluting more than 1,000 miles of shoreline, killing tens of thousands of birds and marine mammals and disrupting fishing.
More than a decade later, the oil industry continues to threaten Alaska, the environment, and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, according to a coalition of environmental groups.
At a press conference Thursday, and later at a protest in front of ExxonMobil's legislative headquarters, the coalition called on four oil companies to abandon proposals to drill for oil in the Arctic Refuge. The coalition also called on Congress and the Bush Administration to protect the coastal plain from drilling by passing the Arctic Wilderness Act, and enact an energy policy that focuses on energy efficiency and renewable energy programs.
"Today we call on Congress to stop America's Arctic from becoming ExxonMobil's Arctic," said Athan Manuel, director of the Public Interest Research Group's (PIRG) Arctic Wilderness Campaign. "With their poor track records, ExxonMobil, BP Amoco, Chevron and Phillips Petroleum should not be allowed to drill in an area as sensitive and pristine as the coastal plain of the Arctic Refuge."
Oil from the Exxon Valdez continues to contaminate beaches, national parks and wilderness areas near Prince William Sound. The Office of Technology Assessment estimates that beach cleanup and oil skimming only recovered three or four percent of the spilled oil.
Only two species out of 26 affected by the spill - the bald eagle and the river otter - have so far recovered to pre-spill levels. Commercial and subsistence fishers continue to suffer, and they are still battling ExxonMobil to recover damages caused by the spill.
"We spill or leak the equivalent of nearly 1000 Exxon Valdez disasters a year, " said Friends of the Earth president Dr. Brent Blackwelder. "Our energy problems can be solved by focusing on cleaner, renewable sources. Unfortunately, President Bush is more interested in paying back big campaign contributors like the oil industry by using scare mongering to justify more drilling and more pipelines."
President Bush has said repeatedly that he believes a small portion of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, known as the North Slope, should be opened to oil and gas exploration. Along with his supporters in Congress and industry, Bush is pushing an energy policy that would rely on Arctic drilling and exploration on other public lands to meet growing U.S. energy needs.
Today, Representative Jim Hansen, the Utah Republican who chairs the House Resources Committee, released a preliminary assessment by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) which shows rich oil and gas reserves in five national monuments, large coal and coal bed gas reserves in a sixth, and other energy potential in some of the remaining monuments.
The Resources Committee commissioned the report from the USGS. In comments to reporters last week, President Bush indicated he would be willing to consider opening some national monuments to energy exploration.
"Five monuments appear to have huge oil and gas reserves, including the Carrizo Plain National Monument and California Coastal National Monument in the middle of California. A sixth - the Grand Staircase Escalante Monument in Utah - has one of the world's richest reserves of clean burning coal and coal bed gas," said Hansen. "Our public lands must play a role in a national energy policy. This report underscores the contribution these lands can make in helping us meet our energy needs indefinitely."
But on Wednesday, the House Budget Committee dealt an early blow to Bush's plans to open one area - the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Because several Republicans and most Democrats on that committee oppose drilling in the refuge, the committee opted against including anticipated revenue from new Arctic oil leases in their fiscal year 2002 budget proposal.
Senator Pete Domenici, the New Mexico Republican who chairs the Senate Budget Committee, said the Senate version of the budget bill will likely also omit anticipated Arctic lease monies, because at least one Republican on that committee - Olympia Snowe of Maine - opposes drilling.
Both Senate and House Republicans seem unwilling to risk losing major budget battles over the contentious issue of Arctic drilling. With the Senate split 50-50 between the parties, and the House split almost as evenly, supporters of Arctic drilling will have a tough time drumming up sufficient votes to override expected opposition to any legislation that would authorize opening the refuge to drilling.
That will not stop Alaska Senator Frank Murkowski, a Republican, from trying. Murkowski, who chairs the Senate Energy Committee, has including language opening the refuge in his comprehensive energy package, introduced late last month. The "National Energy Security Act of 2001" (S 388), which aims to reduce U.S. dependence on imported oil and address current energy shortages, relies heavily on oil and gas exploration on public lands, rather than developing new alternative energy sources.
In contrast, competing energy legislation sponsored by Senate Democrats emphasizes providing "a diverse mix of fuels and technologies," and specifically opposes opening the Arctic Refuge to drilling.
The "Comprehensive and Balanced Energy Policy Act of 2001" (S 597) and the "Energy Security Tax and Policy Act of 2001" (S 596) were introduced Thursday by Senators Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico and Tom Daschle of South Dakota. The legislation aims to increase domestic energy supplies while emphasizing energy efficiency.
Bingaman, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said the energy package balances the need to increase domestic energy supply with the need to emphasize energy efficiency and conservation.
"There's no question that as a nation we have to confront the growing reluctance to construct the energy facilities essential to maintaining our quality of life," said Bingaman. "Unless we act now, we will continue down a path that will only increase our reliance on imported oil and ensure continuing price volatility across the board."
While still designed to encourage domestic oil and gas production, nuclear energy and clean coal technologies, the Democrats' bills also concentrate on supporting the development of new, clean, renewable energy resources that will help the nation combat global warming.
"We're trying to emphasize the importance, not only of pursuing our energy future, but doing so in a way that takes into account climate change policy, because the two are inextricably mixed and are linked together," said Bingaman at a press conference unveiling the new bills.
The bills call for a presidentially appointed commission that would create a plan to return U.S. emissions of greenhouse gases to 1990 levels by the year 2010.
"We believe that should be done on a bipartisan basis," Bingaman added. "We believe it's the right thing to do, as part of making an energy policy."
The two bills emphasize better development, planning and maintenance of the nation's energy infrastructure. To reduce future demand, the legislation directs the Secretary of Transportation to develop regulations to increase fuel efficiency, and provides incentives to replace old appliances with new ultra-efficient models.
The Democrats' fuel efficiency proposal will be controversial, as Congress has effectively blocked any consideration of raising federal fuel efficiency standards for the past six years.
But the Democratic bills' emphasis on non-traditional energy sources is drawing praise. Fred Webber, president and CEO of the American Chemistry Council, said the Council is "encouraged that Senator Bingaman's bill recognizes the importance of cogeneration, and could lead to greater availability of that environmentally beneficial technology."
Cogeneration achieves higher energy efficiency than traditional electric generators by using the same fuel to simultaneously produce electricity and steam. Some existing cogeneration plants are burning forestry and agricultural wastes as renewable fuels.