The Wall Street Journal editorial page observes in “Alaska’s Ebbing Oil“:
…In its 1980s heyday, the 800-mile pipeline pushed some 2.2 million barrels of oil a day from Alaska’s North Slope to the port of Valdez. Yet as the rich fields of Prudhoe Bay and Kuparuk River have declined, oil flow has dropped to one-third of that volume. The drop-off is now causing serious technical problems, as slow-flowing oil drops in temperature and clogs and corrodes the pipe. Failing a technological fix, or more oil, the pipe’s near-term viability is at risk.
Environmentalists know that if the pipeline is shut down, by law it must be dismantled. If they can starve the pipeline of supply, they can kill Alaskan drilling….
To parapharase John Donne’s Meditation XVII:
Any energy source denied diminishes us, because we are involved in an energy intensive society and therefore never send to know for whom the gas pump tolls it tolls for our standard of living.
im from canada and i know of many natives in inuvik who are pro-drilling . in fact a clear cut majority of both the gwichin and the inivaluit are both employed and are for future development in that area . however the gwichin from old crow are against development but for the most part there is none in that area anyway so it is a moot point . this letter is just to point out that most natives of the north that i know are pro- development .i assume that the natives of alaska are the same way .
Green: The color of OPEC money.