Posted 11/29/2011 06:48 PM ET
Energy Policy: The same administration that says we can and should get oil from the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska is blocking a bridge needed to get it to market on environmental grounds.
In his May 14 weekly radio address, President Obama called for annual lease sales in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska (NPRA), not necessarily out of any conviction that increased domestic energy supply is good for prices and national security, but basically to perpetuate the myth that the oil companies refuse to drill in leased or leasable areas.
While he restricts oil production in the Gulf of Mexico and in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas off the north coast of Alaska, and imposes outright moratoriums on federal lands and off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, Obama wants the appearance, if not the reality, of supporting domestic energy production from fossil fuels.
The NPRA, 23 million acres of North Slope wilderness, was established in 1923 by President Harding to ensure a reserve of oil for the U.S. Navy.
Obama has cited it as an example of areas where the oil companies could drill but are reluctant to, knowing full well his administration has walled off preferred areas offshore and in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska.
The problem is that at least one oil company, Conoco Phillips, has said it will go after the oil and gas in the NPRA, estimated by the U.S. Geological Survey to hold 2.7 billion barrels of oil and 114.36 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.
To get it out, Conoco Phillips wants to build a road bridge and pipeline over the Colville River on the edge of the NPRA to get drilling supplies in and the oil and gas out.
The Army Corps of Engineers, backed by the usual environmental suspects, says a pipeline under the river, which is frozen half the year, is preferred even though the oil company has said it would be less safe.
The oil firm argues that since the pipeline will carry a mix of oil, gas and water, it would be at greater risk of corrosion and leaks under the water. An above-ground pipeline would be easier to monitor and maintain.
But Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, who has impeded domestic energy production anywhere he can on environmental grounds, supports the Corps' decision.
The Environmental Protection Agency has designated the Colville River as an aquatic resource of national importance. The Army Corps of Engineers used that as an excuse when deciding on the bridge proposal. "We should minimize the harm to the environment," says Col. Reinhard Koenig.
Environmentalist Eric Myers of the Alaska Audubon Society has never been to Nuiqsut, the town near the proposed bridge into the NPRA, but he says the Colville Delta is vital. "It's a very important area for shorebirds. It has a large variety of habitat for fish species," he said.
The town's mayor takes a slightly different view. "The community would become a hub for the oil industry," says Thomas Napageak. "I believe that could create a lot of jobs."
Like the rest of us during this failed recovery, he is waiting and asking: Where are the jobs? Well, some are waiting in restricted offshore areas, some are waiting in ANWR and some are waiting for a pipeline to be built bringing Canadian tar sands oil to American refineries.
The Keystone XL pipeline is being delayed until after the 2012 election because of concerns that aquifers will be contaminated, the same excuse given for restricting oil and gas extraction from the nation's rich shale deposits.
Energy production used to be a NIMBY (not in my back yard) problem. Now we have gone BANANAs — build absolutely nothing anywhere near anything.
Obama says he's not stopping the oil companies from getting new supplies. But when he doesn't allow oil to be taken out of something called the National Petroleum Reserve, you know he's lying.
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