I. The Arctic National
Wildlife Refuge is a 19 million acre area in northeastern Alaska.
A. It contains boreal
forests and tundra.
B. It features arctic and subarctic plants and animals.
C. The Gwich’in and Inupiat people live in this area.
D. 250 animal species use the coastal plain.
E. Various migratory birds nest in the coastal plain for part of
the year.
II. Part of the 1.5 million-acre
coastal plain of the ANWR is being considered as an area for oil exploration.
A. Senator Frank Murkowski
of Alaska, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural
Resources, is asking Congress to open this area to oil exploration
and development.
B. According to Senator Murkowski, thirty-three Senators have introduced
a bill to allow this exploration to begin.
C. Senator Murkowski says that an Alaskan oil field here will reduce
U.S. dependence on oil imports from foreign countries.
III. There is a big controvery
over the idea to open ANWR to oil exploration.
A. Environmentalists
call the ANWR the biological heart of Alaska.
B. Secretary of Interior Bruce Babbitt says the Clinton administration
opposes this suggestion.
C. A representative of the Sierra Club says that the idea means
the ANWR will be sacrificed for a quick fix on oil prices.
D. Environmentalists say that we can consume less oil.
E. A representative of the American Petroleum Institute says that
the ANWR could provide enough oil to equal what we will otherwise
import from Saudia Arabia for the next thirty years.
