Oil and Gas Development, the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, and Our Wildlife Heritage

Abstract

On a global scale, exploration, development, and transportation of oil and gas resources have the potential to adversely affect wildlife due to: (1) policy and land-use decisions that result in disturbance and/or habitat loss; (2) accidental spills and spills caused by deliberate sabotaging of infrastructure during human conflicts that cause direct mortality, habitat degradation , and long-term ecosystem impacts; and (3) illegal or unsustainable harvesting of wildlife, including threatened and endangered species, to feed impoverished or displaced people or simply as an indirect result of providing poachers access to previously remote areas. Logic and experience indicate that these outcomes all will become more likely and widespread as oil becomes scarce. Fortunately, in the USA and most of the developed world, we do not have to worry about human conflicts or displaced people impacting our wildlife resources as they currently do in parts of the developing world. Hence, on a national scale, maintaining strong environmental standards designed to minimize the direct and indirect effects of oil and gas development on wildlife and reduce the likelihood of spills is key to mitigating the effects of expanding efforts to find and recover more oil and gas . However, as the Peak Oil phenomenon exerts pressure on national economies and security interests, are developed countries going to be willing to maintain those high standards of environmental stewardship? Despite the political rhetoric to the contrary, there already are alarming signs that these standards may be slipping in the USA. In this chapter, I describe a case history from Alaska that illustrates how pressures associated with the Peak Oil phenomenon are directly influencing policy and land-use decisions and how important wildlife resources stand to be adversely affected by those decisions.