Newly elected Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, has pegged this as a top priority, and in a Senate Commerce subcommittee hearing on climate change in the Arctic a couple of weeks ago, Alaska's other senator, Ted Stevens, also a Republican, said he planned to open ANWR to drilling in the coming session and to earmark some of the funds to aid Alaska natives, whose villages are being damaged by the effects of the warming Arctic.

One reason for Republican optimism on the issue is they may be able to attach the authority to drill to a budget amendment, which is immune to filibuster by Senate rules.

I think the perception is that this is their best chance to do it, Melinda Pierce, a Sierra Club lobbyist, told UPI's Blue Planet. The reason for that is that they will try to insert it in the budget, and the budget process protects this amendment from filibuster - which means we need to get 51 votes.

Of the Stevens proposal to aid the natives, Pierce said: The Alaska delegation has tried to entice votes for their proposal by earmarking for a number of different things - for steelworkers, for low-income people, for the development of renewable resources. This is only the latest cynical ploy.

Don't you find it ironic that we're going to use the money to move the communities affected by burning the resource they are going to develop under the Arctic?

The initiative to open ANWR to drilling may be gaining speed, but it is by no means a sure thing.

Pierce said her lobbying coalition is strictly forbidden to engage in vote counting, but we're going to have to work to gain those 51 votes. I think we can do it because of the way they are going about it. People like (Sen.) Mary Landrieu (D.-La.) have voted in the past for drilling, but not including it in the budget.

The Arctic National Wildlife refuge is a 19.6 million-acre tract in northern Alaska along the Beaufort Sea. The area in question is only a portion of the refuge - the 1.5 million-acre coastal plain.

A 1998 U.S. Geological Survey report estimated the coastal plain contains between 5.7 billion and 16 billion barrels of crude oil, with a mean estimated amount of about 11 billion. Annual domestic consumption of oil is about 7 billion barrels.

The refuge - in particular along the coastal plain - is the principal calving ground for the migratory Porcupine caribou herd, which comprises about 130,000 animals. Approximately 160 bird species breed, nest or rest in the area during migrations. It also is the most important polar bear denning ground in the United States.

These issues are similar to ones that arose during the debate three decades ago over the Prudhoe Bay oil development to the west of ANWR. The North Slope area, as it also is known, has produced about 15 billion barrels of oil since the Trans Alaska Pipeline System was completed in 1977.

A 2003 report by the National Academy of Sciences on the environmental effects of Prudhoe Bay development found a mixed bag of impacts, most of which could be expected from large-scale industrial development in a harsh environment.

Effects on hydrologic processes, vegetation and animal populations occur at distances of up to a few miles from the physical footprint of a structure, the report said. Effects on wildland values - especially visual ones - extend much farther, as can the effects on marine mammals of sound caused by some offshore activities.

All visual effects due to the structures and associated activities will persist as long as the structures remain, even if industrial activity ceases.

The effect on individual animal species has varied. BP Alaska, one of operators in Prudhoe Bay, has conducted extensive environmental impact studies on wildlife in the area, from birds to caribou to bowhead whales.

For caribou in the Prudhoe bay area, BP researchers found the herd actually increased between 1992 and 2004 from 23,000 to 27,000 animals. It did, however, decline between 1992 and 1995 to a low of 18,000, a result that is popularly attributed to oil development, but for which BP biologists say there is no clear link.

Since 1972, according to BP's research, the number of caribou in the North Slope's Central Arctic Herd has grown dramatically. The herd, which is the most closely studied herd on the North Slope, inhabits the most developed part of the region - the area that includes the Prudhoe Bay and Kuparuk oilfields.

Despite increased herd size, concerns remain that oilfield infrastructure and activity may 1) displace caribou from some areas, 2) decrease productivity of herds, and 3) eventually lead to a decline in herd size.

Arctic foxes also seem to have done well in Prudhoe Bay, adapting quickly to humans, particularly where food is available. This is a mixed blessing, at best, because it increases the risk of rabies and canine distemper transmission, and increases predation on ground-nesting birds.

The research also indicated bowhead whales suffered at least temporary hearing damage, and were displaced from their usual habitat by oil and gas drilling at Prudhoe.

BP, Conoco, Phillips and other North Slope operators are collaborating with the Wildlife Conservation Society to try to determine whether the birds that use the region are affected by the development.

WCS biologist Steve Zack said the work on this project is not yet complete.

One effect of development is an indirect one, Zack told Blue Planet. There has been an increase in some animals. Arctic fox, ravens and gulls, for instance, are all increasing with industrial development.

The industrial development means there are now tall structures where once none existed, which allows for nesting by ravens and gulls, and more denning opportunity for foxes. Ravens were rare in the area before development.

All of these species are nest predators on the millions of birds that come from all over the planet to nest in a region that was once pretty remote, Zack explained. They are all tundra-nesting birds.

They lay eggs in scrapes on the ground. With the increase in predators, there's concern that these birds' populations will be threatened by these increased predators. We are testing that premise.

WCS was instrumental in getting the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge established in the first place.

As a society, we have a really strong concern and strong sense that this is a tremendously scenic and important place, Zack said. To be open to drilling would really violate the notion of a wildlife refuge, and continue to disrupt the wildlife up there. It is a large battle of value systems.

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