One proposal has the gas starting at Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, picking up more gas from Canada and then taking the shortest route to Chicago and the lower 48 states. It's also the cheaper way. The town of Inuvik is located near the Arctic Circle, a region relatively untapped of its vast amounts of oil and natural gas. The other possible route bypasses the Canadian reserves but brings more economic benefit to Alaska and gets natural gas to the lower 48 states faster by following existing oil pipelines. Many environmentalists remain unconvinced there is any friendly way to disrupt one of the last untouched areas on the planet.
People still use that area to go and hunt whales and they want to be able to continue to do that.
But with natural gas reserves strained, a decision by gas companies on how to proceed is likely to come this winter. That hut at the top of the world may not be the only one for long. The Web Copyright 2000 ABC News Internet Ventures.