Preface

On December 6, 2007, Senator Ted Stevens requested that the Energy Information Administration (EIA) provide an assessment of Federal oil and natural gas leasing in the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) in Alaska (Appendix A).  This report responds to that request.

The legislation that established EIA in 1977 vested the organization with a degree of statutory independence. EIA does not take positions on policy questions. It is the responsibility of EIA to provide timely, high-quality information and to prepare objective, credible analyses for use by the Congress, the Administration, and the public. This report should not be construed as representing the official position of the U.S. Department of Energy or the Administration.

The projections in the reference case used in this report are not statements of what will happen but of what might happen, given the assumptions and methodologies used. The reference case projections are business-as-usual trend forecasts, given known technology, technological and demographic trends, and current laws and regulations. Thus, they provide a policy-neutral starting point that can be used to analyze policy initiatives. EIA does not propose, advocate, or speculate on future legislative and regulatory changes. All laws are assumed to remain as currently enacted; however, the impacts of scheduled regulatory changes, when defined, are reflected.