Drilling For Oil In the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge .
For decades now, oil companies have pressured for the House and the Senate to allow for oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). Located in the far northeast corner of Alaska, it is the only 5% of the North Slope that is not open to oil exploration, development, and drilling. On the other side of this issue, are environmentalists who are fighting to save this 19 million acre comprise, one of the last places on earth where an intact expanse of arctic and subarctic lands remain protected. .
Throughout the twentieth century, beginning in the early 1900's, this area has held governmental interest to people on both sides of the debate. Interest first began with reports of Alaska's surface oil seeps along the arctic coast east of Point Barrow, which in 1923 was established as the 23 million acre Naval Petroleum Reserve Number 4. During World War II, this area, as well as what is today known as the North Slope, was used exclusively by the US government for military purposes - an extensive government- sponsored exploration for oil and gas. After the war, the accelerating resource development across Alaska raised concern for the regions special natural values. ("Potential Impacts.") This led to the signing of the Public Land Order Number 2214 in 1960 by Secretary Fred Seaton of Eisenhower's administration. This order established the 8.9 million acre Arctic National Wildlife Range to protect "its unique wildlife, wilderness, and recreational values." Some twenty years later, President Carter signed the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA) which doubled the protected area to 19.8 million acres and renamed it the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. ("History of.") The major debate over this area began after the April 1978 Interior Department's report recommended full-scale oil development on the Coastal Plain of ANWR ("Potential Impacts.