In ANWR debate, most important voices still go unheard

I read the recent column, "Opening ANWR to stop climate change? Tell me another one," with great frustration, some exhaustion and a bit of ironic humor. In the column, author Charles Wohlforth talks of the hypocrisy of Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott's testimony at the recent U.S. Senate Committee hearing on ANWR, without acknowledging his own hypocrisy in claiming that he's "never taken a position on drilling in ANWR" in an article written specifically to oppose the opening of the refuge to drilling. I won't waste anyone's time arguing the lieutenant governor's points for him, but for those of us who live in the coastal communities on the front lines of climate change, having to think seriously about a near future in which we will face finding solutions and funding for the relocation of our houses, infrastructure and gravesites; we understood his argument in a way that perhaps many could not.

I understand Mr. Wohlforth's apparent ambivalence on this matter; as he stated — it's all about money.  Reductionist though that statement might be, I agree — it is about money. It's about the money that funds health clinics and schools, allows us to flush our toilets and have first-world sanitation, provides infrastructure and services in an unforgiving landscape, and subsidizes the financial component required for subsistence food gathering. You call it greed; we call it our way of life.

[Murkowski proposes 50-50 state-federal revenue split for drilling leases in Arctic wildlife refuge]

The column incorrectly claims that the owners of the refuge oppose the opening of ANWR by a wide margin. It seems to me that if Mr. Wohlforth cared about the opinions of the owners of the refuge, he would have been compelled to include some of the testimony of Matthew Rexford, president of Kaktovik Iñupiat Corporation and tribal administrator for the Native Village of Kaktovik; or that of Richard Glenn, who hails from Utqiaġvik and is vice president of lands and natural resources at Arctic Slope Regional Corporation, in his article. He didn't, as we know, because Mr. Glenn and Mr. Rexford, as well as the majority of the village of Kaktovik, the only community to lie within the bounds of the 1002 area where drilling is being proposed, support the opening of ANWR.

Here is a brief excerpt from Mr. Rexford's testimony, in case you missed it: "As ANWR debates occur, the views of the Iñupiat who call the area home are oftentimes left out. The wishes of the people who live in and around the refuge's coastal plain frequently are drowned out." I won't bother pointing out the irony here.

[Alaskans testify at hearing on drilling in ANWR]

In fact, in addition to Mr. Glenn and Mr. Rexford, Voice of the Arctic Iñupiat, an organization comprised of leadership from 20 member organizations from across the North Slope of Alaska, including tribal councils, municipal governments, ANCSA village corporations, and regional entities such as the North Slope Borough, Iḷisaġvik College and Arctic Slope Regional Corporation have voted unanimously in support of opening the 1002 area to oil and gas exploration.

I would like to address one final point here. In an apparent counterpoint to industry experts' claims that the size of drilling footprints has dramatically decreased since the 1960s when development first occurred in the Arctic, Wohlforth stated that "Alaskans know what an oil field looks like," while referencing Prudhoe Bay – the peak of oil field technology 50 years ago – as an industrial area. He might want to fire up his IBM computer and do some research. Or, he could reference the testimony of Aaron Schutt, president and CEO of Doyon, who very succinctly demonstrated the evolution of drill and access changes on the North Slope over the last 40 years, and how much subsurface area can be accessed through a very small footprint. Prudhoe Bay is a dinosaur and no longer relevant to the technology or industrial footprint discussion, particularly as they pertain to drilling in the 1002 area of ANWR.

If I seem slightly cynical here, I won't apologize for it – because I am. Contrary to claims that this issue is being hustled through Congress with minimal opportunity for debate, I remember when this issue was first introduced many decades ago. We've been discussing it ever since. The message has not changed, and people still are not listening to the voices that matter.

John Hopson Jr. is mayor of Wainwright, a village on the Chukchi Sea coast of Alaska's North Slope.

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