Arctic National Wildlife Refuge via NASA

Today, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) is fifty years old. Politics and special interests have brought ANWR into the national discourse over energy, conservation, and priorities.

Despite concerns over greenhouse gases and global warming, the Republican Party has made it a crusade to drill in ANWR. However, the Republican energy policy is both imprudent and selfish. For example, considering overall world demand and the fact that the United States is a leader in energy consumption, the ANWR oil reserves, if extracted, would be an insignificant new source. Oil is also a fungible commodity that’s sold on an international market. The U.S. Energy Information Administration highlights some drawbacks to drilling in ANWR (footnotes omitted):

There is little direct knowledge regarding the petroleum geology of the ANWR region. . . . Consequently, there is considerable uncertainty regarding both the size and quality of the oil resources that exist in ANWR.

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Additional oil production resulting from the opening of ANWR would be only a small portion of total world oil production, and would likely be offset in part by somewhat lower production outside the United States.

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With respect to the world oil price impact, projected ANWR oil production constitutes between 0.4 and 1.2 percent of total world oil consumption in 2030, based on the low and high resource cases, respectively. Consequently, ANWR oil production is not projected to have a large impact on world oil prices.

The drill here, drill now energy policy does nothing to wean the United States off of an energy source that’s dirty, unsustainable, and nonrenewable. The drill here, drill now philosophy merely stifles progress towards clean energy development and sustainable development, so the drill here, drill now energy policy is foolish and threatens our national security. Currently, President Obama is being pressured to make ANWR a national monument in order to quash efforts to recover any fossil fuels from the reserve. More on ANWR via NASA:

December 6, 2010, marks the fiftieth anniversary of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). The refuge is the largest and northernmost national wildlife refuge in the United States. From north to south, ANWR spans 200 miles, and it covers 19.3 million acres—the size of South Carolina. Described as “the most biologically diverse conservation unit in the circumpolar north” by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, ANWR is home to 42 species of fish, 37 species of land mammals, and eight species of marine mammals. The refuge is also full-time or part-time home to more than 200 bird species.

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ANWR is open to the public year round but the refuge is not easy to reach. Visitors must fly, boat, or hike to ANWR, and hikers must navigate the refuge’s terrain without the aid of established trails. Snow and ice dominate the landscape for as much as nine months out of every year, and from mid-November to mid-January, the Sun stays below the horizon. From late April to mid-August, however, visitors to ANWR can enjoy continuous sunlight and fields of wildflowers.

Video: Here’s an excellent video celebrating the fifty years of ANWR’s existence through fifty photos from the Refuge (images and video by Carl Donohue)