ANWR's Index Number of months before the Department of the Interior gained control of the NPR-A that drilling activity began: 13 Although industry-supported congressmen had been trying for decades to open the NPR to oil leasing, a bill that earmarked government funds for the purposes of opening the National Petroleum Reserve was introduced in mid-1977. It was only stopped by a pocket veto by Carter. Nonetheless, federal money was still earmarked to allow for drilling on your publicly owned lands. The transfer took place in April of 1976, and this bill (HR1977) was introduced in May, 1977. After the passage of ANILCA on December 2, 1980, James Watt (Secretary of the Interior under Reagan) began to gear up for oil extraction immediately. It only took Watt 7 months to get the neccessary administrative tape removed to allow drilling. It took a lawsuit from Eskimo elders to stop Watt's push for oil exploration. Nonetheless, federal money was still earmarked to allow for drilling on your publicly owned lands. "The Fiscal Year 1981 Appropriations Act for DOI provided for competitive oil and gas leasing within NPR-A. Four lease sales were held between 1982 and 1984, but all of the issued leases have expired without development"(1). The point: As soon as control was handed over to the DOI from the Navy, the oil industry was greasing legislative palms to pass legislation to open your public lands to drilling. While drilling itself did not take place until 1997, the only reason that drilling did not take place earlier was that grassroots activism stopped industry-sponsored government lackeys. sources: Congressional Research Service report on the history of the NPR. (1) Report published by the American Geological Institute. St. Clair, Jeffrey and Alexander Cockburn, "Crude Aspirations." The Nation, July, 1997. return to index