12-22.  ADN.  At a time in life when most Alaskans would have long since retired, Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens is taking one of the toughest challenges in the oil patch: opening ANWR.

12-17.  Anchorage Chamber of Commerce-Yesterday, U.S. Senator Ted Stevens (NGP Photo) met with a crowded Fourth Avenue Theater assembly of Chamber members and told them what they needed to hear about ANWR and gas pipelines.  Please see our full report here.

9-28-02.  "Music for Energy Bill Conferees? (Demo Clip for NGP Readers)".  It had to happen.  A patriotic group of Alaskans with no outside funding has organized a rock and roll band called "ANWR", to help sway the U.S. Congressional vote in favor appropriate development of ANWR.  Band member and keyboard player Joan Massart-Paden explains, “Music is a grassroots element for most people. Our music is based on the premise that if the American public hears through music that real people support the drilling at ANWR, maybe some of the politicians opposing the drilling would change their vote.”  The band has currently written and recorded one song, aptly titled “Drilling – Yes or No”, and is attempting to get it distributed locally and nationally. The lyrics, written by Gary Webster and Connie Wilhelm, are meant to carry a strong but non-controversial message. “Drilling issues, we gotta face. We’re divided in the race. From this point where does it go? Is it drilling yes or no?”  The song also remembers the horrors of September 11 in the lyrics: “We can’t forget the terror that brought us all together. We raised our flags and sang the songs. The adversity made  us strong.”  ANWR Band Position Statement & Contact Information.  Media welcome to re-run our articles and links.  Note: polling data shows most Alaskans prize their state for environmental reasons...and most favor responsible development of the small fraction of ANWR acreage which Congress is considering.  -dh  (Note: Gary Webster provided us with a Reader Appreciation Prize CD on 10-7-02, accompanying it with this email message: "...what is portrayed by the environmentalist groups.  The experience in Alaska is, quite frankly, the opposite of that message.  It is difficult to understand why, after 30 years of responsible oil production in northern Alaska, that this kind of message even exists. Sure, the oil companies want to make a profit. All businesses do. Without a profit, they don't exist. Oil companies provide the fuel necessary to meet America's energy needs. Until that need changes through technology or other means, there will be some company to provide the service. I would rather it be a company with America's interest in mind.  September 11 changed a lot of things in America. I think it shows how dependent we really are. To the degree of independence we achieve, we acquire freedom. Currently, we import over half our energy needs. To think we spend millions of American dollars to foreign interests who use it against us in criminal ways, I find appalling. If the oil companies in Alaska behaved as portrayed by the environmental groups, I would have to stand with them. The fact of the matter is, they do not.  For this reason, the band ANWR was organized. Responsible exploration in Alaska is not the only answer toward American independence, but it is certainly a part of it. I will be sending our CD to Indiana, not with any expectation of an immediate change in behavior of anyone in Indiana, but at least to begin to show there is a different perspective. The band ANWR began, and will continue, to gradually open the minds of people. That is our expectation, and that is our cause - not only with the Refuge, but with other narrow-minded points of view. With respect to keeping an open mind, I know I do not have all the information there is on ANWR or any other subject, and I am open to be convinced otherwise. However, I have been in Alaska since 1969, and am not convinced the oil companies are doing a poor job with the environment. Both the industry and the state government have learned over the years. The events on September 11 has convinced me it is time to move forward. Freedom doesn't come by itself. You have to work for it. ANWR exploration is not only a benefit for Alaska, it is a benefit for America.")

9-27-02.  Ontario failing to protect caribou: report

Anchorage Daily News-Karl Francis (NGP Photo) gives ANWR strategy analysis (Photo-Central Arctic Caribou have prospered with North Slope development.)   -dh --"The facts, of course, had little to do with it. The opponents captured and trotted out at every opportunity people posing as Natives of this place, as if a Native is a Native is a Native. One day some years ago, Fenton Rexford, the mayor of Kaktovik, and I came out of the Hart Senate Office Building and noticed a great tumult on the steps of the Capitol. Curious, we went over to see screaming feathered hordes demanding Congress protect their caribou. Since the mayor was the only Native of the 1002 in town, we were curious about who these concerned folks might be. ... I don't have to tell you that oil doesn't destroy caribou. We do that when we build public highways across their migration routes, as ... with the Dempster Highway, the only place now where the Porcupine Caribou herd is taking a serious hit.    *     CBC, Whitehorse, Yukon - ...The Caribou Commons Project called on the city's residents to walk along the Yukon River to support a new effort to protect the Refuge. ...  Ken Madsen, a founding member of the group, says the fight to protect ANWR didn't end with the decision earlier this year not to drill in the refuge. Madsen says they still want to get wilderness designation for the caribou calving grounds.  ... Madsen will be taking part in a walk from Seattle to Washington D.C. later this month to build grass-roots support for protection of the refuge.

6-15/16 Weekend Updates: Sat. 12:10 ET.  LA Times opinion: Dr. Karl Francis, advisor to the Kaktovik City Council:  I was reminded the last time I drove the Alaska Highway that Fairbanks is a long way from Los Angeles, about 4,000 miles. But that is hardly an excuse for the recent spate of articles, editorials and letters about Alaska and its people in the debate over drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.  2.  As uncomfortable and bewildering as it may be to Karl Francis, neither he nor other Alaskans own the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (Commentary, June 10).

1-19/20 weekend:  AP, Via Fairbanks News-Miner, by Cathy Brown, JUNEAU--A bill to give a nonprofit group $1 million more to continue lobbying for the opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is positioned to zoom through the Legislature.

1/9: No stakeholder group knows northern development issues from a more personal perspective than Canadian Aboriginal and Alaska Native citizens in affected areas.  The North Slope village of Kaktovik tells Northern Gas Pipelines it is in the final stages of producing a state-of-the-art movie defining the ANWR issue from the perspective of people who live in the area.  Readers interested in obtaining a copy may write us here.  As a public service, we'll pass your request on to Village leaders so that they can be in direct contact with you.

1/2: Petroleum News Alaska, by Steve Southerlin-Speakers at the Arctic Power annual meeting Dec.18 at the Captain Cook Hotel in Anchorage had a common theme: this annual meeting would be the last.