The Jan. 10 Peninsula Daily News “Protect Refuge” letter claims that the Gwich’in people’s way of life will be ruined if oil and gas development takes place on the tiny coastal plain portion of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
Sorry, but the Gwich’in live hundreds of miles south of ANWR.
The majority of Alaska natives support drilling in ANWR and that support has remained constant for 30 years per Richard Glenn, vice president of Alaskan Slope Regional Corporation in an Dec. 2, 2017, article in The Atlantic magazine.
The few Natives near ANWR will benefit from jobs, community infrastructure improvements, and lease funds, just as Natives have benefited greatly from oil and gas development just to the west.
I worked there much of the last 43 years.
The argument that caribou calving grounds must be protected holds no water.
The porcupine herd calves in the coastal plain of ANWR about every fourth year.
Caribou are constantly on the move and calve wherever they happen to be.
Based on experience around Prudhoe Bay the caribou will be unaffected by oil and gas facilities.
When oil was discovered in Prudhoe Bay (1968), the local Central Arctic Herd had 3,800 animals.
That grew to 70,000 animals by 2010.
The caribou thrived despite oil and gas development.
With directional drilling and other advances, the “footprint” of any oil and gas development in ANWR will be considerably smaller than in Prudhoe Bay.
I can imagine no better place earth to get our oil than from the frozen wasteland of northern Alaska.
Out of sight to all but a handful of people.
Darryl Sanford,
Sequim