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Lieberman’s last chance to close ANWR? Connecticut senator again offers bill to designate coastal plain as wilderness; Alaska’s Sen. Begich responds: ‘Ain’t gonna happen’ Wesley Loy For Petroleum News
We’ve seen no shortage of calls in recent weeks to permanently block oil and gas exploration on the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
The latest came Jan. 25 when U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman, a Connecticut independent, introduced a bill, S. 33, to designate the coastal plain as wilderness.
Also known as the 1002 area, the coastal plain encompasses more than 1.5 million acres.
Nineteen of Lieberman’s Senate colleagues, all Democrats with the exception of one other independent, signed on as co-sponsors of S. 33.
But Alaska’s Democratic senator, Mark Begich, was not among them. He immediately panned the idea of closing off the coastal plain to oil and gas exploration and drilling.
“Ain’t gonna happen,” Begich said in a Jan. 25 press release.
‘A dozen defeats’ Twelve times since 1989, Lieberman has either introduced or been a co-sponsor of legislation to protect the refuge.
Lieberman recently announced he won’t run for re-election in 2012.
“I have long believed that we have a responsibility to future generations to preserve the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and I have fought to protect it for as long as I have been in the Senate,” Lieberman said. “The fact is, we do not have to choose between conservation and exploration when it comes to our energy future; we can do both simultaneously while moving toward a sustainable and diverse national energy policy.”
The press release from Begich’s office predicted S. 33 will fail, marking “a dozen defeats for Lieberman’s bill.”
Regardless of party affiliation, Alaska lawmakers typically have supported ANWR oil and gas exploration. The coastal plain is seen as one of the last U.S. hopes for a multibillion-barrel oil strike, development of which would yield jobs and other economic benefits for the state.
Other conservation efforts ANWR encompasses a total of 19.3 million acres in Alaska’s northeast corner.
Oil and gas exploration and production already is prohibited on the coastal plain pending authorization from Congress. The big question now is whether this prohibition will be permanent.
The Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act of 1980 designated much of ANWR as wilderness, but Section 1002 of the act set aside the coastal plain for certain biological, seismic and geological studies. These studies are largely complete.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service now oversees the 1002 area as a “minimal management” area — a status intended to maintain existing natural conditions — and likely will continue to do so “until Congress takes further action to decide the fate of the coastal plain,” the agency’s ANWR website says.
A congressional wilderness designation, or something akin to it, could foreclose any chance for drilling on the coastal plain.
The Fish and Wildlife Service is now conducting a review on whether to recommend new wilderness designations in ANWR, including the coastal plain.
U.S. Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., on Jan. 5 reintroduced his perennial legislation to designate the coastal plain as wilderness. The bill, H.R. 139, says such action “will still leave most of the North Slope of Alaska available for the development of energy resources, which will allow Alaska to continue to contribute significantly to meeting the energy needs of the United States without despoiling the unique Arctic coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.”
Using the refuge’s 50th anniversary as a hook, environmental groups in November urged President Obama to designate ANWR as a national monument. Such a designation effectively could end chances for oil and gas activity on the coastal plain.
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