Policy Timeline
  • 1923- President Harding establishes 23 million acres of Western Alaska for the Naval Petroleum Reserve
  • 1943- The Department of the Interior stipulates that all land north of the Brooks Range be preserved for "national defense purposes" Public Land Order 82
  • 1958/59 Alaska becomes 49th state
  • 1960- Arctic Range Legislation is passed by the House but blocked by the Senate. Under President Eisenhower, the Secretary of the Interior, Fred Seaton, overrides the senate vote and preserves 8.9 million acres of the Arctic Range for "wilderness, wildlife, and recreational values". Public Land Order 82 is revoked.
  • 1964- The Wilderness Act is passed
  • 1968- Prudhoe Bay is discovered to have America's largest oil field
  • 1970- Under Nixon, the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) becomes law.
  • 1971- The Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act is passed including (Sec. 17(d)(2)) 80 million acres to be set aside as protected federal lands.
  • 1973- The 800 mile Trans-Alaskan pipeline is built despite that NEPA forbid pipeline construction in its legislation.
  • 1978-79 The House declares the Arctic Refuge as "wilderness" while the Senate votes it down.
  • 1980- Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act doubles the size of the Arctic Range and renames the region the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. A study for potential oil excavation is included in the package but exploration is prohibited without explicit approval from Congress.
  • 1987- Under Reagan, the Administration of the Interior releases "1002 Report" which recommends Congress permit the refuge to be opened to oil drilling.
  • 1989- Exxon Valdez oil spill prompts further environmental protective legislation and drilling in the refuge is prohibited altogether.
  • 1991- The Persian Gulf War prompts Bush SR. to propose a National Energy Policy which would open up the refuge to drilling. The bill is defeated by a senate filibuster.
  • 1992- Clinton campaigns on preserving the refuge
  • 1993- Clinton vetoes a bill that would have mandated Arctic oil development.
  • 2002- Senate blocks drilling in Arctic.
  • 2003- Republicans gain control of the House and Senate and try to pass arctic drilling measures once again. They are defeated by a narrow margin of two votes.
Bush Administration
In the past year, Congress has voted to open Alaska to drilling several times. Each time the Senate has rejected the vote only by a narrow margin. But if drilling is economically non-sensicle why then does the Bush administration seem hell-bent on passing this bill? Local Alaskans may be able to shed some light on this seemingly contradictory problem. In interviews I conducted in 2002 with local Alaskans, the answer seemed painfully obvious. According to the locals, the Bush administration has no intention of further opening up ANWR to drilling. This huge campaign is merely a smokescreen to divert environmentalists' attention away from extensive drilling that has begun on Alaska's Western and Northwestern coasts. So far, the Bush plan seems to have worked. Dialogue about this "other" drilling is virtually non-existant and the oil companies have been left in peace to drill.


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