ANWR: New Congress' learning curve is steep
By Roger Herrera
The 106th United States Congress is beginning to get into its stride after galloping in circles over impeachment.
As with any new Congress, the learning curve is steep and dangerous.
Dangerous because of all the boxes that clutter the dismally small office space allocated to the freshmen members, and steep because of the sudden influx of issues quite foreign to the members' experience or district. For example, what does one do when a bunch of Gwichin Indians and affluent Sierra Clubbers come to a congressional office and tell hair-raising tales of impending genocide and environmental desecration committed by the ugly oil companies in far distant Arctic Alaska?
Does one immediately sign onto the Wilderness Bill to lock up Arctic National Wildlife Refuge's coastal plain forever and thus placate such visitors? Or does one listen to their disturbing "arguments, promise to consider the issue further, and await the arrival of other constituents of Alaska's Rep. Don Young, who express a radically different viewpoint?
If you are one of the two freshman with the last name Udall (Democrats from Colorado and New Mexico), you don't hesitate. You sign onto the Wilderness Bill to memorialize your late uncle, Morris Udall. If you are Rush Holt, D-N.J., fresh from beating an incumbent congressman in the election and living in a state that imports all of its oil ~from the Middle East, you are clever enough not to care hoot about Alaska and its distant oil. You sign the bill. But for most new members, the steep learning curve is just that - an opportunity to learn. Every issue has pros and cons, and it's best to understand both.
During the past month, Arctic Power, which represents the position of 71 percent of Alaskans who want the coastal plain of ANT~R opened to responsible oil and gas development, has been quietly educating members of Congress, old and new, on where the issue stands and what is myth in the environmentalists' arguments.
It's easy to know when one visits a congressional office that has just heard from the Gwichin. People there are surprised to hear that caribou populations are thriving in Arctic Alaska. They have no idea that Inupiat Eskimos live on the coastal plain and are comfortable with development in their back yard. They firmly believe that the whole of the Alaska coastline, from Barrow to the Canadian border, is being rapaciously drilled by the oil industry, with the single exception of the sacred coastal plain, which must be preserved. They have not been told that the Prudhoe Bay oil fields are the cleanest and the most strictly regulated of any oil fields in the world. They are not reminded that we now import 58 percent of our oil from marginally stable countries. They think that huge quantities of North Slope oil are exported to Japan! Who made them believe that?
Fortunately the opportunity to correct these myths and misinformation is freely offered by people in the U.S. House and Senate, of both parties, who are very conscious of deceits and lies that can infiltrate the political arena. Education is not easy, especially on an issue as complex as ANWR, but a willingness to listen, a willingness to ask questions and debate the details makes our task of preserving future options for the coastal plain quite reasonable and attainable.
We have to beware that President Clinton may be persuaded to lock up the coastal plain by administrative edict. Our best defense against such a move is to make sure that all members of Congress are acutely aware of the costs to the nation and their states of no future oil from the coastal plain. Wilderness will not keep them warm, and it won't help their economies. Those facts are not always self-evident, which is why we must take every opportunity to educate our members of Congress with facts and honest analysis. Only then will the myths and emotional arguments practiced by our opponents be recognized for what they are.
Roger Herrera is an Alaska petroleum geologist who represents Arctic Power in Washington, D. C.
