ANWR comprises 19,800,000 acres (80,000 km2) of the north Alaskan coast. The land is situated between the Beaufort Sea to the north, Brooks Range to the south, and Prudhoe Bay to the west. It is the largest protected wilderness in the United States and was created by Congress under the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act of 1980. Section 1002 of that act deferred a decision regarding future management of the 1,500,000 acres (6,100 km2) coastal plain, known as the “1002 area.” The controversy surrounds drilling for oil in this area of ANWR.

The total production from ANWR would be between 0.4 and 1.2 percent of total world oil consumption in 2030. Consequently, ANWR oil production is not projected to have a large impact on world oil prices. Furthermore, the Energy Information Administration does not feel ANWR will affect the global price of oil when past behaviors of the oil market are considered.

The Fish and Wildlife Service has stated that the 1002 area has a “greater degree of ecological diversity than any other similar sized area of Alaska’s north slope.” The FWS also states, “Those who campaigned to establish the Arctic Refuge recognized its wild qualities and the significance of these spatial relationships. Here lies an unusually diverse assemblage of large animals and smaller, less-appreciated life forms, tied to their physical environments and to each other by natural, undisturbed ecological and evolutionary processes.”

The Alaska Inter-Tribal Council, which represents 229 Native Alaskan tribes, officially opposes any development in ANWR. In March 2005 Luci Beach, [40] the executive director of the steering committee for the Native Alaskan and Canadian Gwich’in tribe (a member of the AI-TC), during a trip to Washington D.C., while speaking for a unified group of 55 Alaskan and Canadian indigenous peoples, said that drilling in ANWR is “a human rights issue and it’s a basic Aboriginal human rights issue.” She went on to say, “Sixty to 70 percent of our diet comes from the land and caribou is one of the primary animals that we depend on for sustenance.” The Gwich’in tribe adamantly believes that drilling in ANWR would have serious negative effects on the calving grounds of the Porcupine Caribou herd that they partially rely on for food.

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arctic_Refuge_drilling_controversy

All of this when:

“We also see an exponential progression in the use of solar energy,” ….. “It is doubling now every two years. Doubling every two years means multiplying by 1,000 in 20 years. At that rate we’ll meet 100 percent of our energy needs in 20 years.” – Ray Kurzweil

[Show as slideshow]