Norton Insists Arctic Drilling Safe

By JOHN HEILPRIN Associated Press Writer

January 18, 2002 - Interior Secretary Gale Norton believes there's room for both polar bears and oil drillers in a remote Alaska refuge.

Her staff in the Interior Department concluded that America's treaty obligations to protect the world's largest land predators would not be violated by oil exploration in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, officials said Thursday.

"The Interior Department came to the conclusion that we are committed to protecting polar bears and producing energy in the Arctic Refuge," department spokesman Mark Pfeifle said in an interview. Both career and political staff now agree the bears can be adequately protected, thanks to improvements in oil drilling technology, he said.

Department officials rejected warnings contained in two draft reports, in 1995 and 1997, by Interior's Fish and Wildlife Service that said drilling for oil might not be compatible with a 1973 treaty that requires signing countries to protect polar bears and their habitat. It was signed by the United States, Canada, Norway, Denmark and the former Soviet Union.

Despite the earlier reports, Fish and Wildlife Service scientists more recently concluded that the risks to polar bears are minimal if oil development in the refuge is properly regulated.

President Bush on Thursday promoted the administration's plan to drill for oil in the refuge by meeting with Teamsters leaders to highlight the potential for jobs. Unions are divided over oil drilling in the refuge, since many major labor groups oppose it.

Environmentalists have long argued that development of the oil in the refuge would jeopardize the coastal plain's wildlife including polar bears, grizzly bears, musk oxen, 130 species of migrating birds and thousands of porcupine caribou that give birth to their young there in summer.

Pfeifle noted that the Fish and Wildlife Service during the Clinton administration had approved several drilling projects in the Beaufort Sea, which is near the refuge.

Alaska Democratic Party Chairman Scott Sterling, in Washington, D.C., for the Democratic National Committee's winter meeting, said he supports oil drilling in ANWAR as long as wildlife is protected.

Sterling, an attorney from Wasilla, Alaska, about 45 minutes from Anchorage, said Alaskans want to strike a balance between preserving the refuge and creating jobs.

"We recognize it's a national treasure, but it's also a resource," he said.