Once again, the ecosystem of Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is faced with the threat of oil drilling on its coastal plain.

The coastal plain of this unspoiled wilderness supports approximately 180,000 caribou, grizzlies, wolves and more than 100 species of migratory birds.

The Department of Interior estimates that if recoverable oil reserves exist in the coastal plain of the Arctic Refuge, the total gain would be 3.2 billion barrels—a 200-day supply for the United States at current consumption rates.

Drilling in the Arctic Refuge is a temporary solution. We would save 10 times the amount of oil believed to exist in the Arctic Refuge by improving auto fuel efficiency standards.

The Motor Fuel Efficiency Act, if passed, would require a 40 percent increase in corporate average fuel economy standards which would save 2.8 million barrels of oil a day by the year 2001.

Write your representatives in both houses of Congress asking them to oppose the following bills which would open the Arctic Refuge to oil and gas drilling:

S.341, the National Energy Security Act; H.R.759, the Arctic Coastal Plain Domestic Energy Leasing Act; and S.109, the Arctic Coastal Plain Public Lands Leasing Act.

Amy Gillespie

Senior

Mathematics