Alaska's isolated wilderness could soon be opened to oil drilling

There is no road to the Arctic National Wildlife refuge.

To go there you fly in a small specially equipped plane with big, balloon-like tyres that allow it to land on gravel streambeds and rocky ridges.

Further south, the land unfolds into rolling hills and wide valleys before rising in the sheer wall of the snow-clad Brooks Range.

At first, from above, it seems like an empty place - but as I look closer I see a land full of life.

There are scattered groups of caribou here and there - the large bulls sporting impressive arrays of antlers, and the small calves leaping along behind their mothers.

These are just a few of the tens of thousands that graze on the moss and lichen-covered ground of the reserve.

The caribou are the most numerous of the wild inhabitants of the refuge. But there are many other species here as well.

Our pilot points down, and banks sharply. Suddenly I see a group of three grizzly bears on the hillside below - a mother and two half grown cubs. They stare up quizzically at the airborne intruder in their domain. 

Our pilot skillfully brought the plane down atop a ridge. Once on the ground, the overwhelming impression I get is one of silence, vastness and a harsh and humbling grandeur.

It feels like a place where people do not belong.

President's plea

Yet this cold and remote land is the focus of a heated political controversy.

There is oil beneath the tundra - no one knows for sure how much - perhaps 10 billion barrels, perhaps more.

George Bush, the US president, always an advocate of oil drilling no matter where, wants to allow oil companies to exploit the refuge.

"I urge members of congress to allow this remote region to bring enormous benefits to the American people," Bush said in a White House Rose Garden speech.

Bush and Dick Cheney, the US vice-president, have pushed to open the refuge –often referred to by its initials as ANWR - to drilling since shortly after they took office in 2001.

Several times, drilling legislation passed the Republican-controlled House of Representatives.

But environmentalists and their allies in the Senate - mostly Democrats - managed to kill those bills every time.

Now, with petrol prices soaring, Bush is pushing again - citing national security and the need to give consumers relief from high prices.

He says that the public need not worry about the impact large-scale oil production would have on the wilderness area.

"Scientists have developed innovative techniques to reach ANWR's oil with virtually no impact on the land or local wildlife," Bush said, in the same tone of certainty he once used to warn the public about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.

Environmentalists' concern

But environmentalists say drilling for oil here would disrupt the fragile arctic ecosystem, and threaten one of the United States' last remaining untrammeled areas.

"We have very few places that are really pristine wilderness left in this world, let alone in this country and the arctic refuge is one of them," says Trish Rolfe, Alaska representative for the Sierra Club.

I spoke to her in the organisation's offices in Anchorage, Alaska. She pointed out that drilling in the reserve would not be a quick fix for high fuel prices.

"Opening the area to oil - once it came on-line and was producing oil every day -  would only reduce the price of oil by a few cents a gallon and it won't go on line for at least 10 years", Rolfe said.

About 150 kilometres west of the refuge lies Prudhoe Bay, North America's largest oil field.

Operated by British Petroleum, it is an industrial landscape bristling with oil rigs, towers flaring off waste gases, and heavy equipment.

In the winter of 2006, corroded pipes near Prudhoe Bay burst, spilling more than 260,000 gallons of oil onto the tundra.

Uncertain fate

Alaska is a big oil-and-gas producing state. Its economy is heavily dependent of the industry for jobs and the state government earns billions of dollars in royalties.

Almost everyone I talked to in Alaska is in favour of drilling in ANWR.

But the fate of the refuge will be decided not in Alaska but in Washington, where I spoke to energy lobbyist Adrian Herrera from Arctic Power, an industry group. 

He and other industry lobbyists are pushing congress hard, arguing that the American public is sick to death of paying high gas prices.

"It doesn't make sense not to tap ANWR. We are the only nation in the world that refuses to tap our own natural resources - instead we throw money abroad and buy it from nations that are often hostile to us," he said.

In the past, enviromentalists and their allies have refused to let the oil companies into the refuge. Whether they will be able to resist the new demands remain to be seen - but the political pressure is mounting.

Silent, for now

Meanwhile in Alaska, a cold wind with a hint of snow blows on my face as I stand on the ridgetop, looking down into a wide valley.

Far below a group of caribou, alerted to the presence of human interlopers, breaks into a gallop, heading down toward the sea. 

Our pilot looks at his watch, and urges us to hurry aboard. If he does not return to the airstrip in Deadhorse soon, someone may become alarmed and begin searching for us.

But it is hard to leave this cold, austere place. I'm pretty sure I will never have to opportunity to return. Perhaps never again will I be in a place so empty, so silent.

The plane's engine roars into life. We bump down the ridge and into the air. 

Below, the fragile wilderness returns to silence ... at least for now.