America Does NOT Need to Drill in the Arctic National...

America Does NOT Need to Drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge Thesis: If the United States is going to choose to conserve energy responsibly, then our governments energies should not be focused on developing oil in the ANWR, but rather on the topics of conservation through higher fuel efficiency standards in vehicles and by developing alternative energy sources. Conservation, fuel efficiency and alternative energy sources are the solutions that will lead us to a long term and sustainable energy future. I. Introduction The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) is located in the northeastern part of Alaska and has been the topic of many recent political and environmental debates. Many of these†¦show more content†¦In the 1940s and 1950s, Secretary of the Interior, Fred Seaton, designated 8.9 million acres of coastal plain and mountains of northeast Alaska as a refuge.[iii] The remaining part of the 23 million acres became multiple use land, which included uses such as oil and gas development and exploration. In 1968 the largest oil field in North America was discovered in Prudhoe Bay also in northern Alaska. Reserves of oil were also believed to exist in what is now known as Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. In 1978-79 the House of Representatives passed legislation designating the refuge as wilderness. The Senate however, required studies of wildlife and petroleum resources and potential impacts of development on the wildlife.[iv] In 1980 President Carter signed Alaska National Inter est Lands Conservation Act into law (ANILCA). ANILCA doubled the size of the refuge, making it roughly 20 million acres and named it the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR).[v] The area currently being considered for drilling is also known as the 1002 Area. These 1.5 million acres were not designated as wilderness and were addressed in section 1002 of the ANILCA. Section 1002 discussed the information that Congress would need to obtain before deeming the 1002 area as wilderness.[vi] Inventories of fish, wildlife, and the potential impactsShow MoreRelatedOne Significant Change That Has Occurred in the World Between 1900 and 2005. Explain the Impact This Change Has Made on Our Lives and Why It Is an Important Change.163893 Words   |  656 PagesTiffany Ruby Patterson, Zora Neale Hurston and a History of Southern Life Lisa M. Fine, The Story of Reo Joe: Work, Kin, and Community in Autotown, U.S.A. Van Gosse and Richard Moser, eds., The World the Sixties Made: Politics and Culture in Recent America Joanne Meyerowitz, ed., History and September 11th John McMillian and Paul Buhle, eds., The New Left Revisited David M. Scobey, Empire City: The Making and Meaning of the New York City Landscape Gerda Lerner, Fireweed: A Political Autobiography