Where I Stand: Mike O’Callaghan: Not a security issue

Friday, April 5, 2002 | 9:55 a.m.

Mike O'Callaghan is the Las Vegas Sun executive editor.

MORE THAN FIVE YEARS HAVE PASSED since Sen. Frank Murkowski, R-Alaska, sent me a blistering letter because this column had defamed Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho. Well, Murkowski, a banker from Alaska now planning on going home and becoming governor, is still in the Senate and so is Craig. Both are still trying to push nuke waste down the throats of Nevadans and ripping up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Next week the Senate will probably have an amendment to open up ANWR for drilling. The only thing that has changed in five years are additional reasons the drilling will do more environmental damage than it will do good for any of us. Despite the claims that drilling will result in little, if any, environmental damage, studies show a different picture. Less than two weeks ago a new U.S. Geological Survey report warned us of the great harm it would do to wildlife. This report became public before Interior Secretary Gale Norton, a Jim Watt protege, could put her spin on it. This is exactly what she did on a previous report made by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on the effects drilling could have on the porcupine Caribou herd.

Jim Carlton, a Wall Street Journal writer, after seeing the new report went on to say, "The report said other animals could be at risk, too. For example, it said displacement of snow geese by drilling activities could have adverse effects on them, because their feeding habitat is limited. A large portion of their feeding area is on the coastal plain. Moreover, the researchers said musk oxen in the refuge could be hurt by having to expend too much energy moving away from human activities, making it harder for them to withstand the severe Arctic winter."

Any American in touch with reality knows that the ANWR belongs to all of us and not just Alaskans. It was declared our property when designated as a refuge for wildlife by President Dwight D. Eisenhower.

So what is the latest excuse that will be used to drill in ANWR? The same one that was used more than 30 years ago to drill on the North Slope and build a pipeline across Alaska. That's right, national security. Not only was national security used for justification, Alaska's senior Sen. Ted Stevens said that the law should include an absolute prohibition on exporting North Slope oil to any foreign nation. There was a ban on exporting that oil for 22 years but seven years ago that restriction was removed. It was removed when Murkowski, as chairman of the Senate Energy and National Resources Committee, pushed it out of committee with a 14-4 vote. About 60,000 barrels of Alaska crude oil began finding its way to Asia almost every day following the ban removal.

As I wrote, even before the Senate this year refused to approve a reasonable fuel efficiency requirement for vehicles, just an additional 3 miles a gallon per vehicle could save 51 billion barrels of oil. That's three times more than even the highest estimate of reserves believed held beneath ANWR. Also remember that it will take at least seven years before the first oil comes forth from that pristine area.

Let's not forget exactly what ANWR means to the world and one of the world's oldest traditional native cultures, the Gwich'in people. Former Management and Budget Director Alice Rivlin, in a letter to Murkowski several years ago wrote, "The refuge is the last protected fragment of Alaska's Arctic Slope, comprising a pristine, unique ecosystem that is home to hundreds of plant and animal species. It contains 18 major rivers and is home to 36 species and land mammals, nine marine mammal species and over 30 fish species. This area is also the most important calving area for the international porcupine Caribou herd. Studies have shown, for example, that opening this area to oil and gas development would lead to serious threats to the caribou herd and to its habitat in the coastal plain. Those impacts would potentially violate a 1987 joint U.S.-Canada agreement to protect the porcupine caribou, its habitat and the native peoples who depend on the herd to live and maintain their cul! tural heritage."

Is more money in the pockets of Alaskans and their new governor more precious than a protected ANWR? I don't think so.