Large populations of animals like this musk ox populate the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
that the Obama administration wants to protect by designating it wilderness.
In 1980, the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA) added nine million acres to Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, bringing the total there to 19.1 million acres. Seven million of those acres are already designated as wilderness. On Sunday, the Interior Department together with the White House
announced plans to give the other 12.3 million acres of the refuge wilderness protection for another 15-20 years. That would be 98 percent of the refuge and include the coastal plain of 1.5 million acres, an area known to contain massive reserves of petroleum.
There is zero chance the Republican-dominated Congress will take action to make the land in question wilderness. And if they choose to overturn the administration's decision to manage the land as wilderness for the next couple of decades, the president will veto it. Thus, despite its potential temporariness, the president's move generated smiles among environmentalists. But this has angered the Alaskan state delegation, including Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who has just taken over as chairwoman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. After learning of the president's declaration, she issued a ferocious press release Sunday, stating that the administration is making war on Alaska and hamstringing its economy:
“What’s coming is a stunning attack on our sovereignty and our ability to develop a strong economy that allows us, our children and our grandchildren to thrive,” Sen. Murkowski said. “It’s clear this administration does not care about us, and sees us as nothing but a territory. The promises made to us at statehood, and since then, mean absolutely nothing to them. I cannot understand why this administration is willing to negotiate with Iran, but not Alaska. But we will not be run over like this. We will fight back with every resource at our disposal.”
Strong language. And mirrored by that of the other two members of the state's congressional delegation:
“This outrageous action confirms what most Alaskans have feared—that the Obama administration’s war against Alaska families and the middle class would only intensify under the final two years of President Obama’s tenure. But Alaskans have been in tough battles before. We will defeat their lawless attempt to designate ANWR as a wilderness, as well as their ultimate goal of making Alaska one big national park. This decision disregards the rule of law and our constitution and specifically ignores many promises made to Alaska in ANICLA. It is just one more example of President Obama thumbing his nose at the citizens of a sovereign state—and will put Alaska and America’s energy security in serious jeopardy,” Sen. Sullivan said. “I stand united with Sen. Murkowski, Congressman Young, Governor Walker and the members of the Alaska State Legislature to vigilantly safeguard and defend our fellow Alaskans’ interests, and I pledge to do everything in my power to fight back against this assault on Alaska’s economic future.”
“This callously planned and politically motivated attack on Alaska by the Obama administration is akin to spitting in our faces and telling us it’s raining outside. As if on command from the most extreme environmentalist elements, this president and his team of D.C. bureaucrats believe they alone know what’s best for Alaska, but this brazen assault on our state and our people will do the complete opposite,” Rep. Young said. “Every time the president undermines the law of the land, he breaks his oath of office and weakens the nation we love. This latest move, in clear violation of ANILCA’s 'no more' clause, and despite the fierce opposition of every Alaska statewide elected official and the vast majority of our people, demonstrates that the Imperial Presidency of Barack Obama knows no bounds. Simply put, this wholesale land grab, this widespread attack on our people and our way of life, is disgusting.”
Young failed to state specifically where ANILCA is being violated. In November, Sullivan replaced Democratic Sen. Mark Begich, who during his one term in office fought blocking of development of ANWR.
There is more about the plan below the fold.
Although those 12 million acres would be the largest single addition to the wilderness program in its 51 years of existence, the designation would only cover 2.8 percent of Alaska's 425 million acres. But since Jimmy Carter signed ANILCA 35 years ago, there has been an ongoing battle over the northeast coastal plain. Opening it to oil-industry development requires congressional action. That has not happened thanks in great part to the efforts of eco-activists.
Among those activists is Nicole Whittington-Evans, the Alaska regional director of the Wilderness Society. She said the new plan wouldn’t much change the way the area is being managed now:
“They had a choice to recommend the coastal plain for oil and gas exploration, and they did not choose that. So for the next 15 years, the management direction will be to sustain the wilderness character and wilderness lands as they are today,” she said. “We feel that there are some places that are too special to drill, and the Arctic refuge coastal plain is one of them.”
What makes the South Carolina-sized refuge so spectacular in addition to its pristine 9,000-foot high peaks, its twisting rivers and tundra ecosystems is the diversity of undisturbed wildlife. Black bears, brown bears, moose, wolves, wolverines, dall sheep, marmots, red foxes and Arctic foxes and, for part of the year, 110,000 caribou of the Porcupine herd, all live in the sprawling region. Along the coast, beluga and bowhead whales migrate. More than 200 bird species, some permanent and some migratory, populate the refuge as well.
But beneath the surface is the prize oil companies want to get at: reserves estimated at 40 billion barrels. With neither a state income tax nor sales tax—only one of two states where that is the case—the government of Alaska depends on oil revenue to pay the bills. Since oil prices have fallen by more than half in the past seven months, the state faces a $3.5 billion deficit this fiscal year in its $6.1 billion budget.
It's not just the price of oil that's at issue, however. Alaskan oil production has fallen as well, to about 25 percent of what it was at the peak in the 1980s.
Alaska is not barred from oil development on private land or the 105 million acres that were agreed would be owned by the state under ANILCA, which is a fourth of the state's total acreage. But even without a congressional designation of most of ANWR as wilderness, the state's lawmakers say the Obama administration's move will make it harder for state lands to be further developed by oil companies.
But while the current revenue shortfall is spurring state leaders to propose deep cuts in spending, Alaskans have advantages residents of other states wish they had:
Alaska still has billions of dollars of accumulated and untapped wealth. In the last decade, as much of the rest of the nation was staggering through recession, the state was in fact booming as oil prices surged. A $53 billion fund from past oil revenues, which pays dividends to residents from investment earnings, has churned along as well, with last year’s payment of $1,884 per person one of the biggest ever. That fund is wholly separate from the state budget.
In all the complaints about barriers to further oil development, there's little being said about climate change even though Alaska—particularly its Arctic parts—already is being greatly affected by global warming. Unless the world gets its act together, which will require keeping most fossil fuels, including Alaska's oil, in the ground, those climate changes are going to be a lot worse.