Clinton urged to put Arctic refuge off
Copyright 2000 Reuters
December 15, 2000
WASHINGTON - US consumer and environmental fights for groups, alarmed by Republican trees - and president-elect George W. Bush's pledge to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to industry oil drilling, on Thursday urged the White House to declare the pristine area a national monument off-limits to development.
The National Resources Defense Council, Public Citizen, the National Council of Churches, US Public Interest Research Group, and dozens of other groups presented the Clinton administration with 650,000 postcards from Americans who want the Arctic refuge to remain free of oil drilling.
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., an attorney for the National Resources Defense Council, described the Arctic wilderness that is home to polar bears and caribou, as "America's Serengeti." There is widespread public support for keeping the refuge's 1.5 million acre plain pristine, he said.
"If President-elect Bush picks a fight on this issue, we think that's a big political mistake," Kennedy, a prominent Democrat, said at a news conference before taking the postcards to the White House.
Access to the Arctic refuge has long been eagerly sought by US oil companies and blocked by the Democratic Clinton
Bush, a former Texas oilman, has said opening the Arctic refuge to exploration policy changes and drilling would be a key component of his energy policy to help make the nation more self-sufficient. But that plan is ikely to face opposition in congress, which is nearly evenly split between Democrats and Republicans.
Speculation has grown in recent weeks that Clinton, with just over a month left in,office, might declare the Arctic refuge a national monument.
Clinton has taken the same action with a dozen other wilderness areas, mostly in western states.
But Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt opposes the idea, fearing such a designation would anger conservative Republicans and prompt them to try and overturn the action. That kind of challenge could jeopardize other national monuments as well, Babbitt said.
"We think Secretary Babbitt's fear... is not necessarily borne out by political reality," said Gene Karpinski, head of the US Public Interest Research Group.
Environmental groups contend that the potential oil available in the Arctic refuge is relatively insignificant, would take a decade to develop, and would have no impact on gasoline prices in the United States.
The federal government has estimated that about 3.2 billion barrels of oil could be economically produced from the Arctic refuge, an amount representing less than six months of US energy consumption.
"We have a cheaper and better way to get that oil - through conservation," Kennedy said.
He and other green groups want the federal government to raise mileage standards for new cars to require a minimum of 40 miles per gallon by the end of the decade. That level would sharply cut US gasoline consumption, and reduce the nation's dependence on imported oil, Kennedy said.
The United States imports more than half of its oil supplies, and domestic oil production has fallen to a 50-year low.
Alaska Sen. Frank Murkowski, the Republican head of the Senate energy panel, favors drilling in the Arctic refuge and has indicated he would try to overturn any attempt by President Clinton to declare it a national monument.