Choosing Between a Road and a Reserve

President Biden just said “No” to a road.

More than some gravel connecting two places, this Alaskan road represented a much bigger dilemma.

Development or Conservation

Alaska had asked the Biden Interior Department for permission to build a road to a proposed copper mine in the Gates of the Arctic National Park & Preserve. With an estimated value of approximately $7.5 billion, the mine would provide jobs, taxes, and economic development. Already, the Biden administration said Alaska’s Willow Project–with perhaps 180,000 barrels of oil a day– could proceed.

Described in a Washington Post podcast, the road would cut through land that humans have not touched. It would have crossed thousands of streams and 11 rivers. Disrupting wildlife and polluting salmon spawning grounds, it would have changed the environment on which 30 indigenous Alaskan communities depend. It would have irretrievably transformed what President Biden called “..Alaska’s majestic and rugged lands and waters.”

Also announcing that oil and gas drilling was prohibited in 13 million acres of Arctic tundra, the administration reiterated its support of the Willow project. Still, the new decisions’ opponents predicted less Alaskan tax revenue, higher energy prices, and “destabilized” national security.

Our Bottom Line: Tradeoffs

A road is more than a road when it forces us to choose between development or conservation. An economist would say that because of scarcity, we have to make tradeoffs. Since there is a limited quantity of most goods and services, “choosing is refusing.” Shown on a production possibilities graph, more of one item means less of another one. Below you can see that as you move along the curve, you sacrifice more minerals for more wilderness:

So, thinking development or conservation (tomorrow on Earth Day), do picture the revenue or the trees. Think tranquility, traditions, and beauty or jobs and development.

My sources and more: Thanks to yesterday’s NY Times for the update to the Alaskan wilderness road. However, if you have the time, do listen to this podcast.  (Here they have some pictures.) I recommended it months ago as an “e-link.” The best podcast I have ever heard, it described a reporter’s journey through the empty quiet (no roads, no trails) of the Gates of the Arctic National Park. More than a paper proposal, the road (and all of its baggage) became real in the podcast. You might also want to look at this Washington Post article’s discussion of lost trees.

Please note that several of today’s sentences were in a past econlife post.