Donald Trump’s long campaign against the American wilderness will climax Wednesday with an auction of gas and oil drilling rights in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), which sprawls across the northeastern corner of the state.
At more than 19 million acres, ANWR is the largest wildlife refuge in the U.S. and has long been the pristine and protected home of polar bears, caribou, wolves, eagles, migratory birds and many other species. The threat to them extends to indigenous Alaskan tribes whose way of life depends on the wildlife, reports The Guardian.
The plain that would become a drilling ground is a narrow band of land between mountains and the Arctic seacoast. Much of the surrounding area, especially to the west in Prudhoe Bay, is already being drilled.
Long in the planning, the proposed sale of drilling leases led to one of America’s longest and hardest-fought environmental battles.
“Once the leases in the refuge … are sold to energy companies, they would be difficult to claw back,” The Guardian says. “The incoming president, Joe Biden, could, however, discourage development in the refuge by putting regulatory hurdles in the way of drillers.”
Along with the threat to wildlife, ANWR’s likely fate is part of the fierce debate over climate change.
“The refuge has become central to America’s debate over how quickly to stop drilling for and burning fossil fuels as the climate crisis accelerates,” The Guardian says.
Climate experts say there should be no new oil and gas extraction at all, since the planet would continue to heat even if people stopped using fossil fuels immediately.
“For us, it symbolizes just what’s at stake here,” said Adam Kolton, head of the Alaska Wilderness League.
“If you can’t draw a line at the tundra and keep this one area of the Arctic off limits, then the question is, where can you draw the line and what protected part or wildlife refuge in the United States will remain off limits?”
One thing in the environmentalists’ favor is high cost of extracting oil and gas in the remote region; that could suppress Wednesday’s lease bidding.
ANWR was designated in 1960 by President Eisenhower and the fossil fuel industry has pushed for drilling rights there ever since.
“That push continues even though oil is now plentiful, and a fracking boom has made the U.S. a net exporter rather than importer,” The Guardian says.
So why is the president so intent on expanding the drilling in Alaska? Some say it’s just spite.
As CNBC puts it: “… the answer may be that he’s out to ‘own’ liberals one last time, even though prospects of reviving Alaskan oil drilling are no greater than that of bringing back coal production….”
