The state along with the local, corporate media has long looked at Arctic Refuge as an economic savior to the state’s periodic economic woes. Yet, in the past, the amount of oil in Arctic Refuge has been estimated to range from 3.2 billion barrels of economically recoverable oil up to over 11 billion barrels of technically recoverable oil. 

This is an important distinction between what is economically recoverable as it takes in the economics and costs of oil development whereas technically recoverable oil does not. 

In the past, estimated jobs created by development had been hyper inflated by then Senator Frank Murkowski which was deceptive in his attempt to push through development. 

Furthermore, the 2,000 acre footprint was highly deceiving as this only counted the support structures that actually touch the tundra. It did not take into account the acreage for gravel roads, warehouses, pipelines above the tundra minus the support structures, living facilities, etc. To be continued: