[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 41 (Wednesday, April 9, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2904-S2905]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. ROTH (for himself, Mr. Baucus, Mr. Biden, Mrs. Boxer, Mr. 
        Dodd, Mr. Durbin, Mr. Feingold, Mrs. Feinstein, Mr. Harkin, Mr. 
        Kohl, Mr. Lautenberg, Mr. Leahy, Mr. Lieberman, Mrs. Murray, 
        Mr. Torricelli, Mr. Wellstone, and Mr. Wyden):
  S. 531. A bill to designate a portion of the Arctic National Wildlife 
Refuge as wilderness; to the Committee on Environment and Public Works.


              ARCTIC NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE LEGISLATION

  Mr. ROTH. Mr. President, I read recently that ``the best thing we 
have learned from nearly five hundred years of contact with the 
American wilderness is restraint,'' the need to stay our hand and 
preserve our precious environment and future resources rather than 
destroy them for momentary gain.
  With this in mind, Ioffer legislation today that designates the 
coastal plain of Alaska as wilderness area. At the moment this area is 
a national wildlife refuge--one of our beautiful and last frontiers. By 
changing its designation, Mr. President, we can protect it forever.
  And I can't stress how important this is.
  The Alaskan wilderness area is not only a critical part of our 
Earth's ecosystem--the last remaining region where the complete 
spectrum of arctic and subarctic ecosystems comes together--but it is a 
vital part of our national consciousness. It is a place we can cherish 
and visit for our soul's good. It offers us a sense of well-being and 
promises that not all dreams have been dreamt.
  The Alaskan wilderness is a place of outstanding wildlife, wilderness 
and recreation, a land dotted by beautiful forests, dramatic peaks and 
glaciers, gentle foothills and undulating tundra. It is untamed--rich 
with caribou, polar bear, grizzly, wolves, musk oxen, Dall sheep, 
moose, and hundreds of thousands of birds--snow geese, tundra swans, 
black brant, and more. In all, about 165 species use the coastal plain.
  It is an area of intense wildlife activity. Animals give birth, nurse 
and feed their young, and set about the critical business of fueling up 
for winters of unspeakable severity.
  The fact is, Mr. President, there are parts of this Earth where it is 
good that man can come only as a visitor. These are the pristine lands 
that belong to all of us. And perhaps most importantly, these are the 
lands that belong to our future.
  Considering the many reasons why this bill is so important, I came 
across the words of the great Western writer, Wallace Stegner. 
Referring to the land we are trying to protect with this legislation, 
he wrote that it is ``the most splendid part of the American habitat; 
it is also the most fragile.'' And we cannot enter ``it carrying habits 
that [are] inappropriate and expectations that [are] surely 
excessive.''
  The expectations for oil exploration in this pristine region are 
excessive. There is only a 1-in-5 chance of finding any economically 
recoverable oil in the refuge. And if oil is found, the daily 
production of 400,000 barrels per day is less than 0.7 percent of world 
production--far too small to meet America's energy needs for more than 
a few months.
  In other words, Mr. President, there is much more to lose than might 
ever be gained by tearing this frontier apart. Already, some 90 percent 
of Alaska's entire North Slope is open to oil and gas leasing and 
development. Let's keep this area as the jewel amid the stones.
  What this bill offers--and what we need--is a brand of pragmatic 
environmentalism, an environmental stewardship that protects our 
important wilderness areas and precious resources, while carefully and 
judiciously weighing the short-term desires or our country against its 
long-term needs.
  Together, we need to embrace environmental policies that are workable 
and pragmatic, policies based on the desire to make the world a better 
place for us and for future generations. I believe a strong economy, 
liberty, and progress are possible only when we have a healthy planet--
only when resources are managed through wise stewardship--only when an 
environmental ethic thrives among nations--and only when people have 
frontiers that are untrammeled and able to host their fondest dreams.
  Mr. LIEBERMAN. Mr. President, I am proud to join again with Senator 
Roth in this effort to designate the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge as 
a wilderness area.
  This legislation would save the American people the huge social and 
environmental costs of unwise and unnecessary development of one of 
nature's crown jewels. The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is the last 
complete Alaskan wilderness with elements of each tundra ecosystem, the 
biological heart of the North Slope of Alaska. It is on a par with our 
other great national resources, including the Grand Canyon, 
Yellowstone, Jackson Hole, the Badlands, Glacier Bay, and Denali. This 
is a unique piece of God's Earth that must be preserved for our entire 
Nation for centuries to come.
  Make no mistake, environmental impacts to the Arctic National Refuge 
from oil development would be severe and irreversible. The refuge 
includes the calving grounds for one of the largest caribou herds in 
North America, the Porcupine herd--152,000 strong. Native American 
customs have centered around the herd's annual migration for at least 
20,000 years. The refuge is a treasure chest of plants, animals, and 
wilderness unique to the world in terms of abundance, diversity, and 
value to humankind. Over 200 species of plants and animals thrive in 
the refuge, including muskoxen, snow geese, Arctic foxes, Arctic 
grayling, and Arctic char. It is the only natural area in the United 
States with all three species of North American bears--the black bear, 
the grizzly bear and the polar bear. It is one of the most natural 
areas in our Nation, untouched by development, and the last of its 
kind.
  Many environmental studies demonstrate that the negative 
environmental effects of opening the Arctic Refuge to development will 
be severe. Biologists from Federal and State agencies and universities 
have concluded that oil development will harm the calving of the 
caribou herd, and reduce its long term numbers very significantly. The 
Office of Management and Budget has stated that ``exploration and 
development activities would bring physical disturbances to the area, 
unacceptable risks of oil spills and pollution, and long-term effects 
that would harm wildlife for decades.'' Raymond Cameron, formerly of 
the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, documented that 19 percent

[[Page S2905]]

fewer calves are born to caribou cows on developed lands as opposed to 
undeveloped lands, with a 2-percent margin of error. His study also 
documented that caribou cows miss yearly calving at a 36-percent rate 
in developed areas, versus only 19 percent in undeveloped areas. Even a 
small change in calving success can lead to long-term population 
declines. A study by the State of Alaska showed that the Arctic caribou 
herd at Prudhoe Bay declined from 23,400 to 18,100--23 percent--since 
1992. All the population decline occurred in habitat affected by oil 
development, while herds in undeveloped areas grew slightly. Biologists 
fear that development impacts would be proportionately greater on the 
herd that uses the Arctic Refuge.
  The amount of oil that potentially can be recovered from the Arctic 
Refuge is simply too small to affect our energy security, and too 
destructive to the environment to be worth it. A 1995 assessment of 
petroleum reserves by the U.S. Geological Survey reported that there is 
a 95-percent chance that only 148 million barrels of oil exist in the 
refuge. This would amount to a drop in the national oil bucket--an 8-
day supply. Even if the USGS high estimate were correct, the refuge 
would hold at most a 290-day supply for the United States.
  We can all hope for another strike like Prudhoe Bay. But the simple 
reality, based on the very best geological science and economics 
available today, is that alternative energy supplies, as well as the 
real energy savings from national energy conservation programs, are far 
more reliable, tangible, and less destructive energy sources than a 
wild gamble with the Alaskan wilderness.
  The remaining 90 percent of the Alaskan North Slope is already open 
to oil and gas leasing. Is it too much to protect what little we have 
left? Every reliable national poll conducted on this issue shows 
Americans of all political persuasions are against development in the 
refuge by a more than three to one margin. Let's honor our history of 
conservation and protect the future for generations to come, by saving 
the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
                                 ______