Special Guest Comment

The comments below are from Adrian Herrera about NJ's post on ANWR. We are honored to have him stop by and make comments, and hope to have more from him in the future:


Good Job NJ! As Alaska's representative in Washington DC for Arctic Power, the ANWR lobby group, I am heartened to read your good words. I would like to plug our web site www.anwr.org which lists the current legislation in Congress to open the 10-02 Area.

I hope you all write or phone your congressmen/woman in support of the bills in the House and Senate (American Made Energy Act).

About the 2000 acres and the last comment by Halle Burton. It is understood, but not written that the "2000 acre" provision in ANWR legislation includes the surface footprint of the gravel pads where infrastructure would stand.

What is not known, nor written is whether the 2000 acres will include roads or pipeline rights-of-way (elevated). Also what is not known is if the 2000 acres will apply to the Native lands of Kaktovik, which are legally private and thus can be considered outside the authority of federal control.

There is a good legal case to argue that although the native lands are to be developed in tandem with federal lands under the Chandler Lake agreement, the 2000 acre clause may not apply to them. That is a question for the courts.

These issues will not be part of any legislation for ANWR, but will be worked out by the DoI after legislation is approved. It is unlikely however that this will be an issue. Only two areas have been detected for hydrocarbon plays in the 10-02.

One, in the southwest and another in the northeast corner. As the saying goes, oil is where you find it. At roughly a billion dollars a well pad, increasing by size, the footprint will be kept to a minimum regardless of the law, most likely it will be smaller than 2000 acres and could possibly not use roads at all. Alpine field to the west of Prudhoe is a good example of the trend in footprint size and infrastructure/technology.

It is estimated that 10-02 infrastructure will be more than 60% smaller than Prudhoe's. And no, the maze of roads and 1920s oil derricks shown by green propaganda you reference is total nonsense. Laughable to any geologist or engineer. Over 2/3rds of the 10-02 shows little or no sign of hydrocarbon plays. Dishonest propaganda at best in my view.

FYI: Pipelines already exist to within 5 miles of the 10-02 border to Badami and up and coming Point Thompson fields and a majority of the main processing infrastructure already exists at Prudhoe leaving only minimal infrastructure needed in the 10-02.

Last point, the reason NPR-A is being accessed is because all the proper environmental impact statements have been filed and approved with the EPA, the BLM, MMS, USGS and USFWS have all given their approval, as has the North Slope Borough.

America is desperate for oil; the Trans-Alaska Pipeline is less than half full; NPR stands for National Petroleum Reserve....duhh - thats its purpose. It is irrelevant if the 10-02 is open or closed for the State and Feds and oil industry to explore NPR-A. The fact is, we have the oil and technology to g (comment cut off due to length - CP)