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Environmental damage, abandoned treaties, and fossil-fuel dependence: the coming costs of oil-and-gas exploration in the “1002 area” of the Arctic national wildlife refuge

journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-08, 23:17 authored by Benjamin SovacoolBenjamin Sovacool
Contrary to claims from American politicians, lobbyists, and oil and gas executives, allowing energy development in the Alaskan Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) will harm the environment, compromise international law, erode the social significance of wilderness protection, and ultimately fail to?increase the energy security of the United States. After exploring a brief history of the ANWR controversy, this piece argues that the operation of oil and gas refineries in ANWR will release discharged solids, drilling waste, and dirty diesel fuel into the ecosystem’s food-chain, as they have from oil operations in Prudhoe Bay. Less obvious but equally important, oil and gas exploration in ANWR will violate a number of international treaties on biodiversity protection. In the end, development in ANWR will threaten the concept of wilderness protection, and will do little to end US dependence on foreign sources of energy.

History

Publication status

  • Published

Journal

Environment, Development and Sustainability

ISSN

1387-585X

Publisher

Springer Netherlands

Issue

2

Volume

9

Page range

187-201

Department affiliated with

  • SPRU - Science Policy Research Unit Publications

Full text available

  • No

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2015-12-02

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