With gasoline prices now exceeding $2 per gallon and OPEC beaming its approval of $55-per-arrel crude oil, perhaps the time has arrived to begin the process of exploring and, if successful, developing the petroleum resources in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) of northeast Alaska. This 19-million acre reserve is home to caribou, musk ox, polar bears, white wolves and other rare wild life. It is also home to the village of Kaktovik, a permanent Eskimo settlement. There are also nomadic people who follow the annual migration of the caribou herds in the ANWR. Adjacent to ANWR, immediately to the west, is the Prudhoe Bay oil field the largest oil pool ever found in the U.S.
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