Article | 2001

Fool’s Gold in Alaska

By Amory Lovins
Download

In this article from Foreign Affairs the authors argue against drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for economic, security, and environmental reasons. The refuge does not contain sufficient supplies of oil and natural gas to make economic sense. Furthermore, the reserves contained in the refuge are so inaccessible as to make them more expensive and less secure than international supplies of oil. Available and proven technological alternatives that use energy more productively can meet the economic, security, and environmental goals of energy policy with far greater effectiveness, speed, profit, and security than can drilling in the refuge. Even if drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge posed no environmental or human rights concerns, it still could not be justified on economic or security grounds.