Energy Summary

The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) is the largest unit in the National Wildlife Refuge System. The Refuge is America’s excellent example of an intact, naturally functioning community of arctic/subarctic ecosystems. When the Eisenhower administration established the original Arctic Range in 1960, there was a good amount of vegetation and topography in this very small compact area, and with the area being in an undisturbed condition, led to its selection as one of our remaining wildlife and wilderness frontiers.

The Arctic Refuge is the only area on Alaska’s North Slope where petroleum development is specifically prohibited by Congress. The rest of the region is available for oil and gas development through administrative decisions by the Secretary of the Interior on NPRA and the Beaufort Sea, or by the Commissioner of the Alaska Department of Natural Resources on State lands and waters. Although technological advances in oil and gas exploration and development have reduced some of the harmful environmental effects associated with those activities, oil and gas development remains an intrusive industrial process (Bird, K. J., &L.B. Magoon).

The existence of the North Slopes oil facilities and roads covers about 10,000 acres, but the current industrial complex extends across an 800 square mile region, nearly 100 miles from east to west. It continues to grow as new oil fields are developed. The impact of oil field development in this region will eventually affect the vast amount of animals which reside in the area. The animals in this area include; polar bears, muskoxen, and other animal species that are located in the area. In addition, any other oil and gas production would also impact caribou and birds that migrate to this specific area.

Yucca Mountain

Yucca Mountain is located in Nevada, approximately one hundred miles northwest of the Las Vegas metropolitan area. The surrounding areas that are close to this site is the Nevada test and training...