The state of Alaska contains the largest developed oil field in America, but also contains the most extensive system of land conservation units found in any state.  Longstanding political conflicts have shaped national efforts to develop oil resources in Alaska while also conserving wilderness and wildlife in Alaska.  This presentation examines the development of national policies for oil development and environmental protection in Alaska by focusing on three major periods of reform that played pivotal roles in the formation of modern Alaska.  These reforms allowed the development of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System, which transports oil from northern Alaska to the market through an 800-mile pipeline and oil tankers; the establishment of a vast system of federally protected conservation units in Alaska in 1980, giving Alaska by far the greatest land area of national parks and national wildlife refuges found in any state; and fundamental reforms in the environmental management of the marine oil tanker trade that resulted from the catastrophic 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska.  This presentation applies the punctuated equilibrium theory of policy change to examine the political processes and enduring policy consequences of these reforms at the state, national, and international levels.

George J. Busenberg is Director of Environmental Studies and Associate Professor of Environmental Management and Policy at Soka University of America in Aliso Viejo, California.  This presentation is based on his book Oil and Wilderness in Alaska: Natural Resources, Environmental Protection, and National Policy Dynamics (Georgetown University Press, 2013).

PS 595 Credit