Energy Scorecard

This amendment would strike Section 2001(b) of the Senate substitute instructing the Senate Energy and Natural Resources committee to reduce the deficit by $1 billion. This instruction would allow Senate ENR to review the possibility of permitting energy exploration in the section of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge reserved for its future resource potential. When Congress passed the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA) in 1980 creating ANWR, it reserved approximately 1.5 million acres of coastal plain for possible future energy development pending the completion of additional studies. This acreage, known as the Section 1002 area after its section in ANICLA, was not designated as wilderness like the rest of the refuge. Ever since the completion of the requested studies, a decision on whether to permit energy development in the Sec. 1002 area has been put off. It is past time for Congress to make a decision regarding energy development in Sec. 1002, and this budget resolution finally offers that opportunity. The United States Geological Survey in 1998 estimated a mean value of 7.7 billion barrels of oil potentially lies in the Section 1002 area. Two decades of technological advances combined with the federal government\'s long record of underestimating reserves, makes it likely that the true reserves underlying Section 1002 are even greater. Continuing to ignore this resource windfall needlessly harms the Alaskan and wider US economies.