14 DAY TRIAL // The state of Alaska is terribly upset with the United States government right about now. What sparked its anger is the fact that the government has denied its application to go looking for gas and oil on the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
Media reports say that, hoping to overturn this decision, Alaska has gone as far as to file a lawsuit against the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, the Department of the Interior and some of its directors.
According to Think Progress, the state moved forward with this lawsuit on the grounds that the government had no business telling it that it could not explore said protected region.
By rejecting the application, the agencies that it is now going after in court “deprived” it of “its right to provide adequate opportunity for the satisfaction of the economic and social needs of the State,” Alaska claims.
Besides, the state maintains that, contrary to what the government says, it has the authority to explore the region under a federal Alaska land conservation act.
The United States government, on the other hand, argues that Alaska's mandate for exploration of the coastal plain has long expired.
Information shared with the public says that the coastal plain in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge where said state wishes to carry out oil and gas exploration activities is known as the 1002 Area.
The region eyed by the state of Alaska covers some 3,000 square miles (4,800 square kilometers), which is about a tenth of the Arctic reserve's overall surface.
According to specialists working with the United States Geological Service, this area might hold somewhere between 5.7 to 16 billion barrels of recoverable oil. This means that, if exploited, it could cough out an impressive 1 million barrels of oil on a daily basis.
For the time being, Alaska has no intention to actually exploit this reserve. On the contrary, it merely wishes to carry out seismic tests over a period of seven years, and hopes that information obtained in this manner will allow it to get a better idea of exactly what resources are hidden in the 1002 Area.
Alaska claims that, once this mystery is solved, the Congress is bound to have an easier time deciding whether or not drilling activities in the region are worth giving the thumbs up.
Not at all surprisingly, environmentalists do not want the state of Alaska to mess with this coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, be it to carry out seismic tests or to actually go ahead and try to exploit local reserves.
They say that, given the harsh conditions in this part of the world – no sunlight for 56 days of the year, and temperatures that often fall below 30 degrees Fahrenheit – and also taking into account the fact that the region is a protected arctic wildlife habitat, trying to explore or exploit it should be out of the question.