Federal dignitaries travel to North Slope, ANWR

Five Republican senators and the secretaries of the departments of Energy and Interior who traveled to the North Slope in early March say they’re impressed by technological advances in oil development and that development obviously can coexist with wildlife important for subsistence hunters.

Sen. John Thune, a Republican from South Dakota who last year defeated Tom Daschle, the Senate Democratic leader and an ANWR drilling opponent, said the trip was “incredibly enlightening.”

The senators, along with Interior Secretary Gale Norton, Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman and White House environmental policy director James L. Connaughton, met with people in Kaktovik, an Inupiat Eskimo village along the coast of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

During the three-day tour, the group also visited Barrow and North Slope oil fields.

In ANWR, the delegation took a ski plane and landed at several sites.

Sen. Jim Bunning of Kentucky said the trip will make him a better advocate of opening ANWR. Bunning sits on the energy and budget committees: “I’ve voted on this issue more than once, but not with firsthand knowledge. This trip gave me firsthand knowledge of what is happening on the Slope.”