Interior Secretary Stakes Out Position on ANWR
Arianna Huffington’s April 12 commentary, “It’s Just What the Spin Doctor Ordered on Oil,” on the U.S. Geological Survey’s supplemental information about protecting caribou in the ANWR, is just simply wrong. The USGS spent years perfecting a computer model that would allow us to quickly analyze the effects of various energy production scenarios on caribou populations.
Several scenarios analyzed in the March 29 report had little to no effect. The supplemental information uses the same peer-reviewed computer model to analyze the energy production scenarios that today appear most likely under the proposed legislation. Like similar scenarios in the original report, the computer analysis of these scenarios showed little or no effect on wildlife.
The USGS’ supplemental information concludes that energy production would have little to no effect on caribou. The information confirms that with new technologies, tough regulations and common-sense management we can protect wildlife and produce energy on a tiny portion of Alaska’s North Slope.
Gale A. Norton
U.S. Secretary of the Interior
Washington
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