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ANWR update: Remarks taken out of context, says Ted Stevens
Compiled by Steve Sutherlin PNA Managing Editor
U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens said in an April 30 letter to Gov. Tony Knowles that Stevens’ remarks were taken out of context by news outlets whose reports gave the “impression that the issue of opening of the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for exploration and development in this Congress is dead.”
“Nothing could be further from the truth,” Stevens said.
Stevens said his actual statement at a Washington press conference was, “we do not have the votes here right now because of the misinformation that has been given to the country (by opponents of ANWR); we’ll get the votes.”
“I also noted that we did not have the votes on the oil pipeline, ANILCA or statehood at this point in the sessions we considered those issues,” Stevens said, adding, “with hard work we prevailed.”
“ANWR will turn out the same way during this Congress,” he said.
Stevens urged Knowles to work with the Legislature to secure all resources to carry on the battle, as did Rep. Don Young in a separate letter to Knowles.
“The truth of the matter is that this Congress can pass ANWR, but not without considerable effort by the Delegation, and by you and the Legislature,” Young said. Bush still in favor of drilling White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer last month clarified the administration’s stand on opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas drilling.
“The president’s position on opening up a small portion of ANWR for oil development is unchanged,” Fleischer said in a comment to clear up press confusion on the issue.
A Time magazine report had quoted an unnamed source saying Bush’s chief political adviser, Karl Rove told a media consultant for oil companies in a private meeting that Bush wasn’t going to push Congress for new drilling in Alaska.
Asked about the Time article on CBS’ “Face the Nation,” Christie Whitman, Environmental Protection Agency chief said a task force report being prepared by Vice President Dick Cheney “didn’t specifically say you must drill in ANWR” but instead would present a range of options. National attention spurs ANWR tourism ANWR tourism is expected to be up 70 percent over last year as the debate over oil drilling in the refuge fans headlines, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which manages the refuge.
Outfitters report they can’t keep pace with demand to see the area’s caribou and other wildlife.
“We’re turning people away,” said Carol Kasza, co-owner of Fairbanks-based ArcticTreks.
Tourism to the coastal plain last spiked in the late 1980s and early 1990s when Congress considered legislation to authorize drilling, according to figures provided by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. In 1990, 886 guided tourists spent time in ANWR. Two years earlier, just 362 visited. This year 591 visitors are expected to take guided trips to the refuge. Arctic Power gets $2 million The state House Finance Committee added a $2 million appropriation to the capital budget for the fiscal year that starts July 1, to help Arctic Power lobby for ANWR drilling, Finance Co-chairman Eldon Mulder, R-Anchorage, said in a news release.
An amendment attempted by Rep. John Davies, D-Fairbanks which would have made the appropriation contingent on the oil industry matching the state’s $2 million failed 13-26.
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