Plans for oil production in the Nature Reserve in Alaska provisionally laid on ice

US President George Bush had to acknowledge a bitter defeat on Thursday, 10th November 2005. The Republican Party removed the item "Oil production in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge” from the bill shortly before the vote in order to avoid the threat of the entire budget being defeated. It likewise put paid to the plans for the removal of an oil moratorium on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. 25 delegates opposed the prestige project No.1 of their President, who had declared the opening of the nature reserve to be a matter of national security. Their statement read: "Instead of removing the protection of this area, which has lasted for decades, the focus should be laid on renewable sources of energy, alternative fuels and more efficient and more economic ways of providing energy.” This would mean the provision of more energy than would be obtained by opening oilfields in Alaska (Berliner Zeitung, 11.11.2005) The delegates of the Democratic Party have been against the oil project for a long time.

The "Serengeti of the Arctic” has been since 1957 has provided harbour for the porcupine-caribou herds, which number some 130,000 animals. The animals provide the means of existence for the Gwich’in, who live in 15 settlements along the trail of the caribous. The pipelines would provide an obstacle to the animals, which would change their route and avoid the land of the Indians. Canada is also vehemently against the extraction of oil in the ANWR. Since the nature reserve, the settlements of the Gwich’in and the trails of the caribou are also partially on Canadian territory, the Canadians see their interests at risk.

Canada will in any case continue to lobby for the protection of the ANWR. Prime Minister Paul Martin has already offered George Bush the provision of as much Canadian oil as the USA would forgo by giving up the extraction project in the ANWR.

It is nevertheless important to remain on the alert, for the nature reserve has not yet been saved. A week before Congress the Senate approved the oil project on 4th November and passed the bill on the budget without amendment. So it is quite possible that Republican supporters could again attempt to remove the protective status of the nature reserve in the negotiations between Senate and Congress in December and once more include the point in the budget bill.

Following the devastating tornados of the past week petrol prices have also risen sharply in the USA. Therefore the pressure on those who want to save the nature reserve for the whole world has increased enormously. The oil from the ANWR would, in the assessment of independent studies, not even meet the needs of the US for six months. It would also take years for the first drop of oil to come onto the market. Environmentalists fear that the opening of the ANWR could raise a precedent for the removal of other nature reserves to suit the raw materials industry.

We should like to thank all of you who in spite of technical problems responded to our appeal on behalf of the Gwich’in in the edition No. 37 of our Newsletter. We shall if necessary be sounding the alarm again promptly.