Arctic Power "reaches a new low"
Kevin Wilson
Northern News Services
Inuvik (Apr 02/01) - An Alaska-based lobby group has sunk to "a new low" in its push to tap oil and gas in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge, environmentalists say.
Arctic Power, which describes itself as an "Alaska-based nonprofit organization lobbying for responsible development of the Coastal Plain of ANWR," recently took its campaign to the internet.
It sent e-mails that tell recipients "there will be votes on legislation to open a small part of ANWR to responsible development" and urges them to press their congress representative to support the plan.
The coastal plain of the refuge is the principal calving ground of the Porcupine caribou herd. which several communities in the Northwest Territories rely on for food and clothing.
Natives and environmentalists warn that development on the coastal plain will disrupt the herd's movements.
Proponents of drilling on the coastal plain argue that development would only take up 2,000 acres of the refuge, but the Alaska Wildlife league estimates that if roads, drill pads, processing facilities and airports are factored in, more than 12,500 acres of the plain will be affected.
Adam Kolton, a lobbyist for the Alaska Wildlife League, called the e-mail campaign, "a new low. It sounds like an attempt to deceive people."
Kolton says that Arctic Power is "a front group for the oil and gas industry -- nothing more."
Not so, says Arctic Power's executive director Camden Toohey.
"We've been sending out these emails for years," he says. "Do they have the market cornered on the internet?"
Arctic Power recently attracted controversy when it received $1.85 million US from the state government which did not ask for an accounting on how the money would be spent.
Toohey said Arctic Power needs the money to counter deep-pocketed opponents of exploration on the coastal plain.
"They've run full-page ads in the New York Times, the L.A. Times...those kind of buys cost around $100,000 each," he says.
Toohey said the Canadian government funds opposition to drilling in ANWR by supporting the Porcupine Management Board and the Gwich'in Steering Committee.
