mr president i too congratulate michael gahler on a well-balanced excellent report
despite the challenging nature of the environment in the arctic the rising price of oil has stimulated international interest in drilling in that zone
we all know that oil was first produced in nineteen sixty-eight from prudhoe bay on the alaskan north slope but many areas of the arctic have not yet been explored
a two thousand and eight us geological survey estimated that areas north of the arctic circle have ninety billion barrels of undiscovered oil technically recoverable oil and forty-four billion barrels of natural gas liquids
now this represents between thirteen and twenty of all undiscovered oil in the world
needless to say the recovery of so much oil will have a dramatic impact on the arctic and may cause ecological disasters on a global scale so i think we have to ask ourselves whether it is wise to embark on such a project at a time of determined efforts to sever our dependency on fossil fuels and to aim ultimately for a co free society
