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WASHINGTON– In response to a series of apparent misstatements regarding the environmental impacts of oil exploration in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Senator Joe Lieberman today wrote to Interior Secretary Gale Norton asking her to explain answers she submitted to Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on the subject earlier this year.
In her testimony, Secretary Norton apparently overestimated the amount of oil available in the refuge, omitted her own agency's data suggesting how caribou would be affected by oil drilling, and failed to accurately convey the environmental impact of drilling in the reserve. "For far too long there have been confusing and sometimes misleading statements from a number of quarters regarding the amount of oil that would likely be recovered from the refuge, the size of the footprint, the precise nature and degree of our foreign oil dependency, the number of jobs that could be created from drilling, and the environmental impacts of the plan," Lieberman said.
"In the face of wartime pressures to advance our energy independence, it's critical that we not rush into a decision we'll regret. We need a clearheaded understanding of the best science on both the projected oil yields and the environmental impact of the plan," Lieberman said. "The Senate and the American people deserve to know exactly what we are gaining and exactly what we're losing if we commit to this plan." Lieberman said that the United States does need more home-grown energy to strengthen our economic independence and create jobs. But he expressed concern that the plan to allow drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is "a pipeline dream—a decision that would produce just a slight uptick in our oil production ten years town the road at considerable cost to our environment."
Instead, Lieberman said that the U.S. should harness the power of innovative new technologies and invest in clean, renewable and more efficient energy sources to meet the nation's growing energy demands.
Lieberman also disputed the job creation claims of drilling advocates, saying estimates of 750,000 new jobs have been widely discredited. Newer, more reliable estimates suggest that the real job growth lies in cleaner quarters, Lieberman argued, noting that constructing a natural gas pipeline from Alaska to the lower 48 states would create hundreds of thousands of new jobs. "In the spirit of Halloween, let's call the plan to open up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil exploration what it is: an energy distraction dressed up as an energy solution," Lieberman said, "a false promise of economic growth masquerading as an answer to some of our current economic woes. "It's imperative that the Senate have the opportunity to straighten out all the facts so that we can make an informed decision," Lieberman said. "I look forward to Secretary Norton's reply."
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