ANCHORAGE, Alaska — U.S. Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar held a press conference in Anchorage today (Monday)-- and immediately stirred up controversy on the always-touchy subject of federal dominion when it comes to drilling in the state.
Salazar said he would like to place 11 million acres in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska off-limits to oil drillers. The Department of Interior believes that -- despite the restrictions Salazar wants to place on drilling -- half a billion barrels would still be available to drillers on the land he's willing to lease. Interior believes there are another 9 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.
Moments after the Secretary's announcement, environmentalists -- and some North Slope residents -- expressed cautious optimism that Salazar was trying to reach a careful balance between preserving the largest unprotected wilderness in the United States, and going ahead with responsible oil development.
Others did not see it that way.
Through a spokesperson, Alaska Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski said that putting half of the NPR-A off-limits to drillers was a bad idea.
"They've taken 11 million acres off the table -- from a 25.5 million acre petroleum reserve," fumed Murkowski spokesman Robert Dillon.
"It's a major concern for Alaskans," Dillon went on to say. What they're doing is, they're shutting down half of the NPR-A -- and endangering future development in the Chukchi and the Beaufort Seas."
What Dillon was referring to was a plan by Shell Oil to explore the arctic waters -- off Alaska's coasts -- for oil this summer.
If large amounts of oil are discovered in the Chukchi -- and it's believed that they will be -- then a 400 mile pipeline would have to be built across the NPR-A to link that oil with the Trans Alaska Pipeline.
Dillon is concerned that because the Salazar proposal puts so much of the NPR-A off limits to drilling, it could inhibit the proposed pipeline. Salazar says provisions for such a pipeline will be written into his plan, but not everyone is convinced.
Senator Mark Begich (D-Alaska) , through a press release said he's also concerned that Salazar's plan could interfere with the route of a future pipeline. He says the Interior plan raises questions that he wants answered.
Cautiously optimistic were environmentalists, who said that Salazar seemed to be making a sincere attempt to balance conflicting interests.
(SALAZAR STRINGOUT 2, WENDY LOYA/WILDERNESS SOCIETY TC 15:55) "High resources are protected," said Wendy Loya of The Wilderness Society. Then, Loya continued, "And I would imagine that by later this fall or winter we'll see the final plan come out."
Loya is concerned because the NPR-A is -- as National Geographic describes it, "the wildest part of the wildest state." In a 2006 article called "Fall of the Wild" Geographic Senior Writer Ken Bourne, Jr. went on to say that NPR-A "contains the largest piece of unprotected wilderness in the nation, along with half a million caribou, hundreds of grizzlies and in summer more waterfowl, raptors and shore birds than anyone can count."
It's Salazar's job to see that that wilderness is both developed and protected.
But it's not just the environmentalists who worry about proper development of NPR-A. So do Alaska natives -- such as the 5000 Inupiat who live in and around the reserve.
Salazar Proposes Equal NPR-A Split for Development, Wilderness
"Ya know we have the high rates of suicide and the rush is coming in," said Barrow resident Caroline Cannon to Salazar as he was leaving the press conference. Salazar stopped to listen to her concerns.
Cannon told him that many Inupiat feel as though outsiders are forcing their way into their community -- and she's worried about the effects it may have on her culture.
But she walked away from the meeting with Salazar feeling somewhat reassured. She liked the fact that the Secretary had taken the trouble to spend a night living with a family in Nuiqsit -- an Inupiat town at the eastern edge of the NPR-A.
"I'm real happy," she later told a reporter. "When I spoke with Salazar he said that he overnighted in Nuiqsit," She said. "So he got a little feel of what the village life is."
The thought made Ms. Cannon feel that Salazar was making an effort to respect her culture.
NPR-A was actually established way back in 1923 as a Naval Petroleum Reserve. The intention was to re-fuel military ships using oil that would drilled there. By 1971 it was redesignated by Congress as the National Petroleum Reserve -- a place that might one day fill civilian needs for oil. But in the 89 years its been in existence, NPR-A has not pumped a single drop of oil for commercial consumption.
And that is part of the problem that Alaska State Lawmaker Charisse Millett (R-Anchorage) has with Mr. Salazar's decision to place so much of the NPR-A off-limits to drilling. She believes the Reserve should be used for the purpose the Harding Administration had in mind: supplying energy to our nation.
"It makes no sense to me," Millett said today. "I think it's ridiculous," she went on, ridiculous "that a federal government that can't clean-up it's own messes is turning around and telling Alaskans that they're gonna lock-up more land that the United States severely needs when it comes to domestic energy supplies."
The "mess" Millett is referring to is the so-called "legacy wells" that the United States Navy left behind in the 1940's. An environmental mess of more than 100 partially drilled oil wells that have left parts of NPR-A in need of a multimillion dollar clean-up. She is angry at the feds for failing to address the environmental problems they caused, and now for failing to allow more widespread drilling in the NPR-A, using modern "small-footprint" techniques.
Salazar is expected to make a final ruling on his proposal to protect half of NPR-A from drilling by the end of this year.
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