This refers to the National Petroleum Reserve of Alaska (NPR-a), which is situated between the foothills of the Brooks Range and the Arctic coastline, and is about 120 miles from the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) (Rosen, 2003). The Bureau of Land Management ( BLM) estimates the area will"… supplement production from the Alpine fields, which hold 429 million barrels and have a daily oil output of about 100,000 barrels" (U.S. OKs Commercial Drilling in Alaska Oil Reserve).

Government and the corporate sector state that the Alaskan oil reserve offers a possible solution to the energy needs of the country. However, there is also a very strong argument that even using these reserves would not solve the oil crisis and would in fact have a severely negative impact on the environment (Rosen, 2003). Opinion about access to Alaskan oil is split between those who see it in financial terms only...
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