Drilling in Anwar
Floor Speech
Drilling in Anwar
Mr. KELLER of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to talk about one of the central issues of our time, and that is whether or not we should drill for oil in Alaska in an area known as ANWR.
I have just returned from a 4-day trip to ANWR to do a fact-finding mission to see this area firsthand. Those in our country who are for drilling in the ANWR section of Alaska say that there's a large amount of oil there, that it can be drilled in an environmentally friendly manner, and that the Alaskan people want it. Those who are against drilling in ANWR say there's only a trivial amount of oil there, it will hurt the pristine wilderness, and it will hurt the wildlife in that area, particularly polar bears and caribou.
Well, to answer those questions for myself, I went there. I just want to walk through a couple of them. First, let's talk about the amount of oil in the ANWR area. Having been there and talked with the experts, I can tell you that there is 10.4 billion barrels of oil in ANWR, according to the U.S. Geological Survey and the U.S. Department of Interior. That 10.4 billion barrels of oil is enough oil to provide my home State of Florida with all of its petroleum needs for 29 years. It's enough to provide 1 million barrels of oil a day, every day, for the next 30 years.
The next issue comes up, Well, this will hurt the pristine wilderness area. Well, I traveled to ANWR, and you can see this map. This is the entire ANWR area. The only village in ANWR is called Kaktovik. I stood right there in the Arctic Ocean looking down at ANWR with the head elected leader, Mr. Fenton Rexford. As I looked out, all I saw was a flat, barren tundra.
I asked Mr. Rexford, Where are the trees? He said, there are no trees within 100 miles of this area that would be drilled. The area is not a pristine wilderness. It looks more like the moon than it does the rain forest.
The next issue becomes, Well, this will hurt wildlife. We hear from those who have concerns particularly about caribou and polar bears. I saw both on my trip in visiting various parts of Alaska. There are 5,000 polar bears approximately in Alaska, and 800,000 caribou. Caribou are by far the most numerous of the large mammals in Alaska.
Are we concerned about diminishing numbers? No. Both the numbers of polar bears and caribou have increased every year since the last three decades. In fact, we know that they can coexist because right next to ANWR is an area called Prudhoe Bay, the single largest oil field in the United States.
When oil started to be taken out of Prudhoe Bay in the mid seventies, there were 3,000 caribou in that area. Today, there are over 30,000 caribou. The numbers have increased tenfold.
So the bottom line from my fact-finding mission to Alaska is this. There is a significant amount of oil there. Over 10 billion barrels. The Alaskans do want it, over 70 percent Statewide, and 90 percent of those who live along the ANWR coastal plain. This can be done without harm to the wilderness. There's not a tree within 100 miles. And 99.9 percent of ANWR would be off-limits to the drilling. It can be done without harm to wildlife, either polar bears or caribou. And we can have it all. We can have responsible, environmentally friendly drilling that reduces our dependence on foreign oil.
I made a promise to the Eskimo tribal leaders when I was there in Kaktovik, a small town with 300 folks, that I would come back and tell their story as objectively as I could. They said so few Members of Congress have ever visited there and they would like to just get the truth out for both sides. I hope today, by laying out as best I can my factual findings, I have honored their request. I urge folks to look at this issue objectively, as I have, and try to reach a fair conclusion.
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