Critics protest proposed drilling in Arctic refuge

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Protesters in Alaska urged federal officials to keep oil rigs out of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge despite a federal law requiring lease sales in the wilderness area.

At a Bureau of Land Management environmental review hearing in Anchorage, Laura Herman urged that no drilling be allowed because of the effects of extraction on the region and the long-term effects of burning the fossil fuel.

Herman, 29, said she was too young to be telling “old-timer” stories about how cold it used to be in Alaska, but she did say signs of climate change are all over her home state.

“If you’ve lived in Alaska for more than 15 years, you can see it with your own eyes,” she said.

The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge was created in 1960 during President Dwight Eisenhower’s administration. Congress in 1980 expanded the refuge to nearly the size of South Carolina with the provision that 2,300 square miles of the coastal plain be studied for natural resources.

The U.S. Geological Survey estimates the plain holds 10.4 billion barrels of oil.

Multiple representatives of Defend the Sacred-Alaska denounced petroleum development in the refuge for the effects it would have on the Porcupine Caribou Herd.

The coastal plain is the nursery for the herd, named for the Porcupine River. The 200,000-animal herd migrates from Canada.