The battle for Alaska's oil affects
all of us
by Jim Whitaker
Augusta
Chronicle
A battle to determine the future of Alaska and its oil industry, which has been raging in Washington, D.C., for decades, affects not only Alaska but also Georgia and the rest of the country.
The struggle is a microcosm of a larger battle over private and state rights being fought in many Western states where vast quantities of oil and natural gas are not being developed because the federal government keeps millions of acres locked up year after year.
A visit to Augusta by Alaska native Karen Mitchell recently revealed some of the forces fueling this issue.
Under the auspices of the Alaska Wilderness League, an environmental protection group, Mitchell came here to relate her concern about her people and their culture, which she says are endangered by proposals to open the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve's coastal plain for oil exploration and production.
Mitchell is a Gwich'in, a tribe of the Athabascan Indians that have lived off the land in northern Alaska and Canada for 30,000 years. She claims opening ANWR's coastal plain for oil exploration and production will destroy the Porcupine caribou and the Gwich'in culture so tightly linked to them.
The 19.8 million acres of ANWR is part of the national wildlife refuge system operated by the U.S. Department of the Interior. In 1961, ANWR's 1.5 million-acre coastal plain was designated by Congress for special study to determine its oil and gas potential and the environmental impact of development.
Such a study is important because of America's rising dependency on foreign oil. In mid-1998 the United States imported 55 percent of its oil, according to industry figures, and that number is increasing.
It's particularly important to Georgia because, according to the Georgia Petroleum Council, 53 percent of the oil used by Georgians in 1997 was imported and without an increase in domestic oil production, that percentage is likely to go up. In addition, $105.6 million from Alaska's Prudhoe Bay development since 1980 has been spent in Georgia and more than 100 Georgia vendors do business in the Great State's oil fields. According to oil industry sources, 18,000 Georgia jobs could be created from development of the coastal plain.
But opening ANWR to oil production so far has been thwarted by the environmental lobby. In 1987, the Interior Department recommended development and the issue went to Congress. In 1996 Congress finally agreed and sent legislation to President Clinton as part of the Balanced Budget Act. The president, however, under pressure by environmental lobbyists, vetoed the bill.
National environmental groups have long opposed opening ANWR and hope to persuade Congress to permanently ban even exploration of the coastal plain for oil and gas.
The controversy swirls around two of Alaska's ancient cultures, Mitchell's Gwich'in Indians and the Inupiat Eskimos who also have lived in Alaska and Canada for thousands of years.
The central character in Gwich'in oral history is the caribou and its life cycle. Gwich'ins subsist mostly on the Porcupine caribou that travel in the spring from Alaska's Brooks Range near the Porcupine River to the coastal plain of ANWR. It is on the plain the caribou often give birth to their young.
The Gwich'in depend of the caribou for food and clothing and as a result, the Arctic people have come to regard themselves as part of the coastal plain's ecosystem, even though they don't live there. They fear oil exploration and production will damage that fragile ecosystem forever.
Ben Nageak, mayor of Alaska's North Slope Borough, is an Inupiat Eskimo. The Inupiat, like the Gwich'in, subsist mainly on caribou and fish.
Nageak, like Mitchell, highly values the culture and traditions of his people but he says he will return when he reaches retirement age. So, like most Alaskans, he is protective of the environment and actively works to keep it unspoiled. But Nageak sees the oil companies as good neighbors. He says they are willing to work together with Alaska natives as partners in extracting oil without damaging the land or the caribou.
Meanwhile, oil revenue has provided services for Nageak's people he says they could never have afforded without it, including a water-sewer project for all of their villages. He adds his tribal leaders are committed to bring the Inupiat people into the new century and they see oil revenue as a way to do it.
The two native groups obviously see the future differently. One would cling tenaciously to the past, fearing progress. The other would embrace the future, blending it with the good of the past. Unfortunately, for the Inupiat, the Gwich'in and for all Alaskans, the choice of which future to follow will be made in Washington D.C.
