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Myth: Without drilling in the refuge, there will be increased risks of oil spills at American ports from foreign tankers.

Fact: Tankers bring oil to American ports regardless of whether it is from Alaska's North Slope or imported from foreign countries. Oil from Alaska's North Slope is pumped down the Trans-Alaska Pipeline and shipped by tanker from Prince William Sound to lower 48 ports.

Fact: Besides our Nation's largest oil spill which devastated over a 1,000 miles of Alaska's pristine coastline, tankers carrying North Slope oil have sullied the ports and coasts of Washington, Oregon, and California. A number of such major spills have occurred since the Exxon Valdez.

Fact: Today, 11 years after the Exxon Valdez spill, the vast majority of oil shipped from Alaska is carried in aging tankers with higher risk of leaking. Only 3 of 26 have double-hulls and those are more than 20 years old. The first of Phillips’ four new Millenium Class double-hulled tankers to be built was christened in October, 1999, but will not carry North Slope crude oil until 2001. The first of BP’s three newly ordered double-hulled tankers will not enter service until 2003. Exxon has yet to order any double-hulled tankers.

Fact: In the wake of the Exxon Valdez spill, Congress passed the Oil Pollution Act of 1990. It includes stringent requirements for safety for all tankers calling at U.S. ports, regardless of their country of registry or Flag State. Prior to OPA 90, rules for the design and safety of the international tanker fleet rested with the countries that registered the tankers. By passing OPA 90, The United States shifted the balance of power for tanker safety to the countries where the world's tanker fleet delivers oil.

Fact: Under the terms of OPA 90, "unsafe foreign tankers" are no longer allowed to deliver oil to any U.S. port. Regardless of a tanker's flag state, it must meet all the standards for safety, crew manning and training, vessel inspection and spill prevention and response. They also must meet requirements of financial responsibility that mandate that the vessel owner demonstrate a capability to pay for the cost of cleaning up an oil spill, before the tanker can deliver oil to U.S. ports. The tankers must also meet the requirements to convert to a fleet of double hulls pursuant to a conversion schedule outlined in OPA 90.

Fact: Senator Murkowski said during the debate on lifting the ban on exports of Alaskan North Slope oil (1995):

“All tankers serving U.S. ports, whether American-made or foreign-flag, are subject to the same requirements under the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 and are subject to the same safety and navigation requirements of the U.S. Coast Guard.”

“The fact is, there is simply no basis to assert that … foreign-flag tankers in Puget Sound waters are environmentally risky.”

Myth: Between 250,000 to 735,000 jobs nationwide could be created by oil development in the Arctic Refuge.

Fact: These numbers are from a flawed study done a decade ago. Most of the findings of the 1990 study (commissioned by the American Petroleum Institute) have been widely refuted by the Congressional Research Service and other economists.

Fact: The API study used unrealistic assumptions: that the price of oil would be over $48 per barrel [2000 dollars]; that the highly improbable 9.2 billion barrels will be extracted; and that the output will drive down world oil prices by nearly 5%, thus spurring economic activity nationwide.

Fact: The Congressional Research Service said, "only a magnitude of oil production that would be associated with a very large discovery could produce conditions that could lead to readily apparent benefits to the economy… Oil and gas producers that do not participate in ANWR development, their suppliers, and their local economies in the contiguous 48 states would be harmed by a price drop" (CRS, 1992, ANWR Development: Analyzing its economic impact).

Fact: Re-analysis of the economic estimate based on more realistic assumptions showed that industry's estimate was exaggerated 10-fold (Tellus Institute 1993). Ten times more jobs nation-wide would result from energy efficiency than from drilling in the refuge.

Myth: This is an issue for Alaskans to decide.

Fact: All Americans own the refuge lands. All Americans have a stake in our national wildlife refuges and parks. The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is the crown jewel of the National Wildlife Refuge System. The refuge, including its coastal plain area, is a federal conservation system unit under the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act of 1980 (ANILCA).

Fact: Recent opinion polls show a solid majority of Americans support protecting the Arctic Refuge coastal plain from oil drilling.

Fact: The State of Alaska owns 104.8 million acres in Alaska and was granted more lands -- and a higher proportion of lands within its state -- under the Statehood Act than any other state in the U.S. The State owns the valuable Prudhoe Bay oil fields and many other known fields on the North Slope, including huge ones such as West Sak that are largely untapped, in the vicinity.

Myth: An overwhelming majority of Alaskans support drilling in the Arctic Refuge.

Fact: Statewide public opinion polls show Alaskans to be closely divided on this issue. In a recent poll, 45% of Alaskans agreed that "the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, or ANWR, should be protected from oil drilling" while 49% disagreed and 6% were neutral or didn’t know (Alaska Conservation Alliance, July 2000). In response to the statement "the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge should be protected from British Petroleum's oil drilling and development plans," 41% agreed, 43% disagreed and 16% were neutral; Alaska Conservation Alliance, November 1999).

Fact: Most Alaska residents polled in rural areas, Southeast Alaska, Fairbanks, Democrats, moderates, and women by a wide margin agree that the refuge should be protected from oil development (November 1999).

Myth: There is little concern for oil drilling impacts to subsistence uses by Native Alaskans.

Fact: The Gwich'in (Athabascan Indian) people in the U.S. and Canada are united in their support for wilderness protection for the one area most important to the survival of their culture, the calving and nursery grounds of the Porcupine caribou herd in the coastal plain of the Arctic Refuge. The 7,000 Gwich'in people are one of the most traditional of surviving native cultures today. Their 15 villages are located along the migratory paths of the caribou. Arctic Village is located just outside the southern boundary of the refuge. If the Porcupine caribou herd is disrupted, even for a few years, many people may have to leave their communities to survive. Over the past decade they have subsisted on an average of 3-5,000 caribou each year.

The Canadian government at the highest levels, the National Congress of American Indians, representing over 200 tribes, the Tanana Cheifs Conference, the Council of Athabascan Tribal Governments, and the Episcopal Church and other religious organizations support the Gwich'in position. The Canadian government, along with the Inuvialuit and Vuntut Gwich'in First Nations have protected the Canadian calving and post-calving grounds of the Porcupine caribou herd in Ivvavik and Vuntut National Parks.

Fact: The Inpuiat (Eskimo) people living on the North Slope are primarily dependent on the bowhead whale and marine resources. They have strenuously opposed offshore oil development in the Arctic Ocean for decades, including in the area off the coast of the Arctic Refuge due to concerns about impacts to their subsistence resources from noise disturbance and oil spills. There are about 250 residents in the village of Kaktovik on Barter Island on the north boundary of the refuge. Although the community of Kaktovik supported wilderness protection for the Arctic Refuge until the early 1980's, they have come to support onshore drilling. They average about 100 caribou harvested annually.

Fact: The North Slope Borough is one of the richest local and regional governments in the U.S. and will continue to have the power to tax the oil industry as it further develops known fields in the vicinity of Prudhoe Bay.

Fact: There are about 6,300 Inupiat stockholders in the Arctic Slope Regional Corporation (ASRC) which owns nearly 5 million acres on the North Slope, most of which is available for oil leasing and development. They have leased lands in the Alpine oil field which will begin production soon and in adjacent areas within the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska. ASRC is the State's largest Alaska-owned Corporation, and a Fortune 500 Corporation with $887 million in revenues in 1998.

ASRC received the subsurface title to lands beneath the Kaktovik village lands within the Arctic Refuge in a 1983 land exchange signed by Interior Secretary James Watt. The exchange agreement expressly prohibits oil development of ASRC lands unless the Federal coastal plain area is opened to the oil industry. When ASRC signed the agreement, it was clearly aware of the high risk that Congress might not open the coastal plain for oil and gas development. ASRC has already gained at least $39 million from oil lease agreements -- a value six times the Interior Department's calculated value of the exchange, which the GAO found was not in the government's interest.