Episode 5: Path Dependence
Episode Length: 52:53
Focus
Historical events, including the Gwich’in uniting against drilling, James Hansen’s report on climate change, and the Exxon Valdez oil spill, that led to this point in the story of drilling in the refuge, as well as the tensions between oil and natural gas extraction and climate change.
LocationS
Kaktovik, Alaska
Keywords
oil, climate change, fossil fuel development, renewable energy, energy transition
Episode Outline
These outlines are intended to help you locate ideas and topics more easily, but these are narrative episodes with many interlocking themes and ideas, so you may want to share segments that cross multiple points in the outline.
Minutes: 00:00-05:01
Alaska is an oil state and climate hasn’t traditionally factored into conversations about fossil fuel development:
Fight over drilling predates climate change and while some want to keep drilling and climate change separate topics, it’s becoming impossible to do so
05:02 - 12:49
Four events that happened between June 1988 and March 1989 foreshadow the fight over drilling in Alaska now:
June 5, 1988 — Gwich'in gathering in Arctic Village to discuss how to respond to drilling on the coastal plain
June 23, 1988 — Scientist James Hansen testifies before a Senate committee about human-caused global warming. Catches the attention of Louisiana Senator J. Bennett Johnston
March 16, 1989 — Senate committee votes yes on a plan to drill in the refuge sponsored by Senator Johnston
March 24, 1989 — Exxon Valdez spills 11 million gallons of oil in Alaska
12:50 - 16:43
Many, like Senator Johnston, who supported drilling, saw the oil spill and drilling expansion as unrelated: one is supply and one is demand:
That drilling bill died but many more were proposed over decades
Senator Johnston has been an advocate for combating climate change and expanded drilling for years, based on what he believes are stronger environmental protections in the US and the opportunity to make money while the demand for fossil fuels goes down
16:44 - 20:49
Fossil fuels are embedded into everything so it’s difficult to separate supply from demand:
Oil companies have a lot of money and influence, and they fight those who try to curb demand for oil
No one person or country has the power to eliminate demand for oil; it requires a global effort
20:50 - 24:31
Climate change is not one issue—it impacts so many things:
Alaska Senator Murkowski is a leader on climate change but also supports drilling—unclear why she believes there should be drilling in ANWR when there are many other places already developed
BREAK
24:33 - 28:44
From the lease sale (the auction of rights to drill) to actual drilling takes years, with a lot of litigation along the way:
Oil industry depends on snow and ice roads but climate change makes ice road season shorter
28:45 - 32:09
Oil drilling supporters say that continued exploration and leasing is about staying ahead of demand since development takes so long:
ANWR is mostly public land but the public is mostly not supportive of drilling there
32:10 - 35:02
One reason renewables haven’t grown faster is because oil companies have spent millions on campaigns to suppress climate science.
35:03 - 40:03
Almost everyone recognizes that a transition from fossil fuels to renewables is necessary but there’s no agreement over when and how to make that transition:
There may also be more natural gas than oil on the north slope—the problem for development, in all cases, is transportation
40:04 - 44:39
Most conversations about the Arctic in Washington, D.C. are about national security and not climate change:
Path dependence is where the choices we made in the past shape what we think is possible going forward—climate change is disrupting that story
44:40 - 47:22
There is a tendency to devalue and portray the North Slope as not worth saving because it’s not “pretty” enough.
47:23 - 52:53
ANWR is precious to the people who live there, and if we can’t see and feel that, it may say more about us than about the land.