But evidence from energy experts and scientists proves the opposite: The amount of oil estimated to be in the refuge is just a fraction of our yearly consumption and California, which generates less than one percent of its electricity from oil, is facing a generation shortage, not an oil shortage. Opening the refuge, even according to some oil producers, will have no effect on oil prices because the supply is too small and Persian Gulf oil too cheap.

Though the energy benefits of drilling in the refuge are nonexistent, the environmental damage will be severe: Drilling in the refuge will decimate one of our nation's most important wilderness areas and threaten habitat used by hundreds of animals -- all for a six-month supply of oil. Just as we wouldn't flood the Grand Canyon for hydropower or cap Old Faithful for geothermal energy, we shouldn't drill for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Background

+ According to U.S. Geological Survey estimates, there is less than 3.2 billion barrels of economically recoverable oil under the coastal plain of the Arctic Refuge -- the equivalent of a six-month supply of oil for the United States.

+ Because the amount of oil estimated to be in the refuge is so small in comparison to world petroleum supplies, it will have no effect on world oil prices.

+ Due to the complexity of drilling in the Arctic, the oil would not be available for 7-10 years.

+ Ninety-five percent of Alaska's oil-bearing North Slope is open to oil and gas exploration and leasing. The coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is the last five percent of Alaska's North Slope that remains off-limits to oil drilling.

+ The Arctic Refuge itself is 19 million acres. But, the coastal plain of the Arctic Refuge -- the part that conservationists are working to protect and that oil companies want to drill -- is just 1.5 million acres, or less than the half the size of Connecticut.

Why Protect the Refuge?

+ The Arctic Refuge is a unique and pristine wilderness area that is crucial both to native people and a huge range of wildlife. According to the Department of Interior: The Coastal plain "is the most biologically productive part of the Arctic Refuge for wildlife and is the center of wildlife activity."

* The Coastal plain of the Refuge is most famously known for the annual migration of the 129,000-member Porcupine River Caribou herd. Each spring, the Porcupine Caribou migrate over 400 miles to reach the coastal plain of the Arctic Refuge to give birth to their young in the same place, year after year.

* For almost 20,000 years, this awesome migration has sustained the Gwich'in Natives, who view the coastal plain as sacred and whose traditional lifestyle depends on Caribou for food, clothing and medicine.

* The Refuge is the most important on-shore polar bear denning area in the United States and is also home to many unique and important animals including Grizzly bears and Dall sheep, Musk oxen, arctic foxes and wolverines.

* Hundreds of thousands of migratory birds, representing more than 130 species, make stopovers on trips from as far away as the Baja Peninsula, the Chesapeake Bay and even Antarctica to use the coastal plain as a breeding- and nesting-ground.

+ The overwhelming majority of Americans believe that we should protect special wild places like the Arctic Refuge for our children as part of our American heritage.

"Clean" Drilling is a Fantasy

+ Though new drilling and exploration techniques may be less harmful than past practices, oil production is an inherently messy business and "clean" drilling is still a fantasy.

+ Proponents of drilling in the Arctic claim that instead of scooping tons of gravel from fragile stream beds, they will be able to build roads made out of ice. But, in certain areas of the Arctic Refuge where not enough water is available, gravel roads will still have to be constructed.

+ According to a recent article in The New York Times Science Times (Jan. 30), new computer-based exploration techniques, though they improve the probability of hitting oil, can actually worsen environmental impacts because they require caravans of one hundred or more vehicles (some of which weigh up to 10 tons) to criss-cross the fragile tundra looking for oil. Polar bears are extremely sensitive to disturbances during the winter and have been know to abandon their young when heavy equipment moves into an area.

+ Regardless of the technological improvements to oil exploration, drilling and producing the oil still requires a massive maze of pipelines and roads along with fuel dumps, waste treatment facilities, gravel pits and other infrastructure.

+ And no matter how much we improve all of these techniques, oil exploration inevitable results in spills. On January 16, Alaska's North Slope saw yet another major oil-related mishap when 20,000 gallons of drilling "mud" -- a petroleum based lubricant used to ease the drill bit's path through the Earth -- spilled from one of Prudhoe Bay's newest facilities.

Prudhoe Bay Pollution Looms Large

+ Prudhoe Bay averages over one spill a day of petroleum or other hazardous waste -- in 1996 there were 427 spills.

+ Prudhoe Bay, once called the height of responsible drilling, is home to an industrial complex so large, astronauts report seeing it clearly from space.

+ Oil and gas drilling in Prudhoe Bay currently creates 43,000 tons of nitrogen oxides a year -- twice as much air pollution as the city of Washington DC.

Instead of Drilling the Arctic, Raise CAFE, Increase Efficiency, Invest in Renewables

Instead of drilling in the Arctic, we could find a new source of oil by raising automobile and light-truck fuel-economy standards, increasing the energy efficiency of our homes and investing more in renewable sources of electricity, like wind- and solar-power.

+ If we increased fuel economy standards by just 6 percent each year, in the decade that it would take for oil from the Arctic Refuge to become available, we could be saving 1.1 billion barrels of oil annually. That's more oil than we import from the entire Persian Gulf and within three years of full implementation would equal the total amount of recoverable oil estimated to be in the Arctic Refuge's coastal plain.

Increasing the efficiency of our homes could also do much to cut the use of heating oil, but, in the long term, only renewable sources of energy, like solar and wind-power, will give us stable, clean and plentiful energy.

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For more information on the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, please contact Melinda Pierce at (202) 675-7912 or <melinda.pierce@sierraclub.org>

For all other inquiries, contact the Sierra Club's media team at (415) 977-5527 or <media.team@sierraclub.org>.

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