The Arctic Wildlife Range

The Land of the Caribou

President Bush remarked that we as a nation can not afford to ignore the potential for energy of the Arctic Wildlife Range. He there fore favors oil exploration in this Arctic Wilderness. The Arctic Wildlife Range is one of the largest of our wilderness wildlife areas. It holds the largest free ranging herd of caribou in North America.

The popular opposition to oil exploration and development on the Arctic slope adjacent to the Arctic Wildlife Range created such an uproar that Congress exempted the area from the requirements of the National Environmental Protection Act. The oil was discovered. The pipe line was built to Valdez. The oil spill was predicted and is now history.

Significant Sources

If what President Bush says is true that we can not afford to overlook any significant source of energy for our growing economy then the largest 'oil field' is yet to be explored. That oil field is energy conservation. There is more oil to be obtained from known sources and reserves through energy conservation than in any amount of oil exploration we can do.

The development of new sources of oil such as the Arctic Wildlife Range benefit the oil companies, who also own the refineries and the shipping and distribution facilities. The public does not benefit particularly since the price of oil at the pump does not vary that much. It varies more from taxes than it does the price of oil.

Energy Conservation

The public would benefit greatly from energy conservation since energy conservation would result in lower prices for energy and everything else. Increased efficiencies in the use of energy will result in more efficient technological ecosystems. This in turn will result in more efficient manufacturing and less expensive commodities. In the long run, our international economic competitive advantage will not be based in how fast we use our resources, but how efficiently we use them. We can start at no better place than conservation of energy.

The oil in the Arctic Wildlife Range is in the public domain. It should be developed for the maximum benefit of the American people. We should do conservation first. If after we exhaust all our conservation technologies and still need the Arctic Wildlife Range oil it will be there for us to use. To explore, develop and use it when we really don't need it is exploitation—not development—of the public domain.

. . . Ted Sudia . . .

© Copyright 1989
Institute for domestic Tranquility