The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) is a national wildlife refuge in northeastern Alaska and is the largest National Wildlife Refuge in the United States. Created by Congress in 1980 with the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA), this area is at the center of both economic and environmental controversy as it holds potential for the production of both oil and natural gas. The ANILCA’s most controversial piece was the decision to defer drilling and petroleum exploration in the coastal plain region of ANWR known as the 1002 area (Figure 1).
Petroleum is a valuable economic resource that is used in everyday life from the generation of electricity to fueling transportation to making plastic and synthetic goods. Yet despite modern society’s reliance on petroleum, we are using this finite resource faster than it can be replenished and at the cost of damaging the environment and inducing anthropogenic warming of the Earth’s climate. Petroleum is a nonrenewable resource, meaning that it cannot be readily replaced by natural means on a level equivalent to its consumption. It takes millions of years for crude oil to form through the burial and decay of small aquatic organisms (e.g. plankton, diatoms). The formation of petroleum primarily consists of three steps. The first step consists of the burial of the aforementioned …show more content…
Start-up costs can be high but once established maintenance costs are generally low and the energy produced is renewable meaning that it will be clean and affordable with a higher reliability than burning fossil fuels. Asides from perhaps geothermal energy, few repairs other than annual inspections are needed for solar panels and wind turbines unless there is a malfunction, Sustainable energy is also more resilient than power plants that burn fossil fuels and coal due to the geographical
Petroleum is a valuable economic resource that is used in everyday life from the generation of electricity to fueling transportation to making plastic and synthetic goods. Yet despite modern society’s reliance on petroleum, we are using this finite resource faster than it can be replenished and at the cost of damaging the environment and inducing anthropogenic warming of the Earth’s climate. Petroleum is a nonrenewable resource, meaning that it cannot be readily replaced by natural means on a level equivalent to its consumption. It takes millions of years for crude oil to form through the burial and decay of small aquatic organisms (e.g. plankton, diatoms). The formation of petroleum primarily consists of three steps. The first step consists of the burial of the aforementioned …show more content…
Start-up costs can be high but once established maintenance costs are generally low and the energy produced is renewable meaning that it will be clean and affordable with a higher reliability than burning fossil fuels. Asides from perhaps geothermal energy, few repairs other than annual inspections are needed for solar panels and wind turbines unless there is a malfunction, Sustainable energy is also more resilient than power plants that burn fossil fuels and coal due to the geographical