The Politics of Oil
by Clive Tesar
The Arctic Council has released a version of its Arctic Oil and Gas Assessment, prompting new discussion about the effects of oil and gas development in the Arctic.
Patricia Cochran, Chair of the Inuit Circumpolar Council , spoke at an event held when the Assessment was released. She recalled the words of another Inuit Leader, Eben Hopson, founder of the ICC, who more than thirty years ago told a major pipeline inquiry
“The politics of the Arctic are no longer the politics of the people, but they are the politics of oil.”
Cochran also pointed to a conclusion reached by Michael Baffrey, one the authors of the Assessment, that
“When local organizations and institutions lack power, local interests are likely to be neglected, so that costs are borne disproportionately by local residents while benefits accrue primarily at the regional and national levels.”
The costs of development pointed out by Cochran include a recent study that found that bowhead whales are avoiding areas oil and gas development offshore of Alaska, forcing Inuit hunters further out in dangerous seas. She also spoke of the intense fear of Inuit in Alaska that a spill like the Exxon Valdez will contaminate their coastline. “If the coastal resources on which we rely are polluted,” she said, “then the bottom drops out of our culture.” She cautioned that,
“As new parts of the Arctic are opened up to oil and gas development, the politics of the Arctic must be of the people of the Arctic, and not the politics of oil.”
The Arctic Council is still considering its response to its “Arctic Oil and Gas Assessment”. A full version of the Assessment is to be released later, along with some policy recommendations. The shorter version that has been released can be found here: http://www.amap.no/oga/.
While the Arctic Council considers its response to the Assessment, oil and gas companies have snapped up drilling rights to parts of the Chukchi Sea, northwest of Alaska. The US Government has allowed the companies to bid on more than 117 thousand square kilometers of sea bed, from about 40 to 320 kilometers offshore. The lease sale went ahead over the protests of Indigenous people from Point Hope, who worry about the effects of further drilling on their whale hunt, and the possibility of spills.