To the editor:
The Sierra Club would like to thank Rep. Wayne Owens for becoming a co-sponsor of HR39, a bill in the House of Representatives that would protect the 1.5-million-acre coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.Often called "America's Serengeti," the coastal plain is home to over 160 species of wildlife and is the last intact arctic ecosystem left in the United States.
Oil companies are lobbying hard to open the coastal plain to drilling, yet there is only a 19 percent chance that any oil will be found. If it is found, the estimated supply would last about six months at the present domestic rate of consumption.
More than 55 million acres of arctic Alaskan land is presently open to oil and gas development. Of the 1,100 miles of arctic coastline, all but the 125 miles contained in the coastal plain are open to leasing.
The chance of ecological disaster is very real. The recent oil spill at Valdez, the largest in U.S. history, demonstrates that when an accident occurs in a remote and pristine environment, the results can be catastrophic.
Utah and Alaska are often mentioned in the same breath as home of some of America's last true wilderness. Our national heritage should not be sacrificed for a few dollars and a few days of oil, either in our own back yards or the frozen tundra of the North.
Christine Osborne
Utah Chapter Sierra Club