Politics: "[Caribou] couldn’t care less whether…the [Trans-Alaska oil] pipeline was there, or the oil company was there”--House Republican Leader on CNN, 7/23/08
VERSUS
Science: A survey of radio-collared females between 1980 and 1993 showed that the caribou reduced their use of the more heavily developed Prudhoe Bay oil fields by 78 percent, and their east-west movements declined by 90 percent..."As surface development continues, the caribou are effectively crowded out of these areas," said Ray Cameron, the University of Alaska professor, who has studied the effects of roads and pipelines on the Central Arctic herd. "They’ve decided it’s not the place to be."--SF Chronicle, 8/28/05