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CNN Live Today

Senate Set to Begin Debate on Drilling for Oil in ANWR

Aired April 11, 2002 - 13:27   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Well, in the days to come, Senate Republicans hope to beat a Democrat filibuster on a bill to allow oil drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. President Bush is pushing hard for the measure. Democrats contend it would cause too much environmental damage for too little oil.

CNN's Mark Potter joins us with a look at what's at stake, and he's in Miami right now. So, Mark, we're not really sure exactly how much oil would be gained after any drilling there? Why is already this debate so heated if we are in the exploratory stages still?

MARK POTTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, the debate is heated because it has been heated for decades. This is the same old argument over and over again that has resurfaced. They don't know how much oil is there. The argument is, let's go find out.

It boils down, Fredricka, to a question of what is most important for this country. The economic and political value of drilling for oil within U.S. borders or the aesthetic and environmental value of protecting a wilderness area. The area we're talking about, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, or ANWR, is about the size of South Carolina. It's in the northeast corner of Alaska. And the issue on the table now, once again, is whether to explore and drill for oil in a very small area of ANWR, along the coastal plain area.

A government report estimates that anywhere from six billion to 16 billion barrels of oil may lie beneath the coastal plain area, but again, as we said, we don't know for sure how much is there because seismographic tests and other tests have not been done since 1985. They've been prohibited by Congress.

Now, drilling supporters say let's go find out how much is there. We can do this in an environmentally safe way. We have the technology to go in there, to drill in the wintertime and with long-distance drilling techniques that won't have much of an impact on the area and would only affect about 2,000 acres. And they say it can done safely and frame this as a national security issue.

The environmentalists do not believe the claim that the area can be left relatively untouched. They say this is a big risk. It would defile a national treasure, a national wilderness treasure that some refer to as the American Serengeti, and they say it's just not worth it; there is not really enough oil there in the long run to affect much U.S. oil use, and it would not have much of an impact on the amount of oil that we get from other countries.

They also point out that if the green light were to be given today, we wouldn't see the first drop of oil from ANWR for about a decade -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: So, Mark, although there are a number of people in Alaska who are concerned about the environment, how does the divide -- how does the dividing line draw? How many people just might be opposed to it, how many of those folks are in favor of it?

POTTER: Well, the majority, Fredricka, are in favor of drilling and continuing to drill. Oil is the lifeblood, the economic lifeblood of Alaska. It has brought much -- a lot of money, billions of dollars, into the state, kept taxes low, job rates high.

There is an interesting fight that goes on between the native communities in Alaska. The Enupiat (ph) Eskimos on the north slope area who are involved in the drilling projects favor continued drilling in ANWR. They say it brought them medical care, schools, police departments, homes, heat, all the things they didn't have before oil came -- was extracted from the north slope area.

To the south, the Guichian (ph) Indian tribe opposes drilling. This is a subsistence group that bases its existence on the caribou herd which -- (UNINTELLIGIBLE) in the area where they would be drilling, and their fear is that if drilling occurs, it would effect and perhaps damage and divert the herd away from them, and it would effect their lifestyle, they argue, in a very dramatic way.

So the arguments go on and on, and they're heated and they're quite dramatic.

WHITFIELD: All right, Mark Potter from Miami. Thanks. Great lesson on ANWR 101. Thanks a lot.

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