Proponents of drilling in the Arctic (including Congressman Ganske) claim
that development on the coastal plain will be limited to 2,000 acres.  Here
is an interesting related article about the "sprawling development" of an
oil field.
Jane Clark


Arctic Drilling Bill Caps Development Size - Seattle Post-Intelligencer
- 11/12/2001
<http://seattlep-i.nwsource.com/national/46326_anwr12.shtml>

Phillips Petroleum Co.'s new Alpine field west of ANWR is less than 100
acres and considered the model of Arctic oil development today. But the
field is becoming a springboard for sprawl. Five other fields have been
discovered nearby. While the combined acreage of development would
likely be under 500 acres, the pipeline and facilities span more than
128,000 acres.

=====================================================

BELOW IS INFORMATION PROVIDED TO US EARLIER BY PAM MACKEY-TAYLOR:
Myth: Oil development on the coastal plain will be limited to 2,000 acres.

Fact: Oil development would industrialize hundreds of square miles and the
biological heart of the refuge.  The 2,000 acre "limitation" clearly is
deceptive.  All proposals to drill the Arctic Refuge open the entire 1.5
million acre coastal plain "1002 area" of the Arctic Refuge to oil and gas
leasing and exploration.  An amendment, adopted in the House Energy Bill,
allegedly limited the scope of oil-development to 2,000 acres.  It does
nothing of the sort.  Exempted from the acreage total are seismic and
exploratory drilling activities, the construction of ice or permanent roads,
gravel mines and pipelines.  To put this in perspective, there are over
1,000 miles of pipelines in Prudhoe Bay.

The 2,000 "limitation" thus allows for 20 oil fields scattered across the
Coastal Plain.  The New Jersey Turnpike is 148 miles, and includes many
traffic lanes, yet in its entire length it only covers 1773 acres as
compared to the 2000 acres that would stretch across the pristine Arctic
Refuge.  The 2,000-acre "limitation" also equals 5160 Statue of Liberties or
1500 football fields

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