New jobs from ANWR drilling: a 700,000 bonanza or less than one-tenth that many?

Steve Sutherlin

Interior Secretary Gale Norton has said that oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge would produce more than 700,000 jobs, but some independent economists call the figure suspect, based on a 12-year-old study.

Norton is relying on “discussions with labor leaders,” said Mark Pfeifle, Norton’s spokesman.

Teamsters representative Jerry Hood said in an interview he prefers to talk of “a range” of anticipated jobs from ANWR development of from 250,000 to 735,000. “Jobs creation is an art. It’s not a science,” he said.

The Teamsters cite a 1990 report by WEFA Group, for the American Petroleum Institute. Hood’s lower figure comes from a 1992 study for the Energy Department by DRI-McGraw Hill, forecasting 222,480 jobs.

Dean Baker, an economist frequently cited by environmentalists contends that if WEFA’s assumptions were updated, the job forecast would be at most 50,000 — a number dismissed by pro-drilling advocates as unrealistic.