If you read the link you would see ANWR has been federally protected since 1960. Also, I think you mean Clinton not Carter was president until Jan 2001. I know that many, who reside on the the dark side, are of questionable intellect. I don't think that applies to you however, so I'll just assume that is a mistake.
Yes Rob, I know all about the rather dubious arguments from drilling proponents. Since you brought up some perceived positives about Prudhoe Bay, it would only be fair if we took a look at the negatives. The formerly pristine Prudhoe Bay area now consists of:
28 oil production plants, gas processing facilities, and seawater treatment and power plants
38 gravel mines
223 production and exploratory gravel drill pads
500 miles of roads
1,800 miles of pipelines
4,800 exploration and production wells
Each year, the greedy oil industry spills tens of thousands of gallons of crude oil and other hazardous materials on the North Slope, something I notice you didn't address in your response to my previous post. In fact, every day there is on average at least one spill either in the oil fields or at the Trans-Alaska Pipeline. From 1996 to 2004, there were some 4,530 spills of more than 1.9 million gallons of diesel fuel, oil, acid, ethylene glycol, drilling fluid and other materials. Plus, I've already mentioned the major oil spill in 2006.
Each year, oil operations on Alaska's North Slope emit more than 70,000 tons of nitrogen oxides, which contribute to smog and acid rain. Pollution from Prudhoe Bay has been detected in Barrow, Alaska, nearly 200 miles away. And pollutants from drilling operations, natural gas facilities and incinerators also have been detected in snow in the Prudhoe Bay area.
Because of the extreme cold, any physical disturbance...bulldozer tracks, seismic oil exploration, spills of oil and other toxic substances can scar the land for decades. The National Academy of Sciences concluded it is unlikely that the most disturbed habitat will ever be restored and the damage to more than 9,000 acres by oilfield roads and gravel pads is likely to remain for centuries.
I know, a bunch of stats, but they illustrate the inherit dangers and by products of any drilling operation. Prudhoe Bay, despite your caribou numbers, has been anything but an overwhelming success story. There is still a great deal of disagreement over whether drilling in ANWR would even be worth it, so let me ask you again....is there no place sacred or off limits to the greed of the oil industry, or do you feel that Exxon Mobil and others should be allowed to go about their merry way and drill, rape and pollute wherever and whenever they see fit?
