Resolution 2003-021 supporting the "responsible exploration, development and production of oil and gas resources" within the coastal plain of the refuge was introduced by assembly President Pete Sprague of Soldotna. It passed 6-1. Assembly member Chris Moss of Homer was absent due to illness.

Assembly member Gary Superman of Nikiski attended most of the meeting by teleconference from Juneau but had left the meeting by the time the ANWR measure was addressed.

Martin appealed to the assembly to forego taking a stand on the controversial development of ANWR at this time.

"It is my view that opening the ANWR will open a Pandora's Box in direct conflict with the goals and intentions of a refuge," she said. "I think the Alaska North Slope oil fields are known to be one of the largest industrial complexes in the world that sprawl over 1,000-square miles -- not acres, but miles. To believe that ANWR can be developed environmentally soundly, I find a stretch."

Martin said the administration of President George W. Bush has "ignored and usurped environmental safeguards throughout this nation" and has not supported conservation of oil use. "It seems that instead they are encouraging ever more use," she said.

Meanwhile, she noted, Gov. Frank Murkowski's administration in Juneau has advocated shifting the Department of Fish and Game's Habitat Division, which she called a "very efficient" division, to the Department of Natural Resources, "which by our own experience we know to be inefficient and unresponsive."

Opening ANWR would not solve today's fuel problems, nor tomorrow's, she said. It would take a decade to develop the refuge to production in any case.

"I believe this nation and future generations will be better served by continuing to protect this gem of the arctic, the last arctic wilderness remaining," she said. "I'd like to quote from Theodore Roosevelt. 'The nation behaves well if it treats the national resources as assets, which it must turn over to the next generation increased and not impaired in value.'"

Sprague said when he was in Juneau at the end of January, he spoke with Sen. Tom Wagoner, who was preparing a resolution in support of opening ANWR, something done every year. Sprague said he was provided with a copy. Its language was combined with that of a similar borough resolution passed two years ago to produce the current resolution, he said.

"I believe that the ANWR debate has gone on and will continue to go on, but I believe that ultimately we are going to start drilling on a very small portion of the coastal plain of ANWR. That's the reality of the world in which we live," Sprague said.

Three members of the assembly will travel to Washington, D.C., in about a week to attend the National Association of Counties convention. While there, Sprague said, the assembly members are sure to meet with delegates from other states. A prime topic is likely to be how the assembly views the opening of ANWR.

"I believe a resolution in support of ANWR will provide us with a position ... and let the delegates from the rest of the country know that we can do this, and that we can do this responsibly, we can do this well, and that we would be doing a service to the people of the country and to Alaskans," Sprague said.

According to estimates by the U.S. Department of the Interior, the 1.5 million-acre coastal plain of ANWR may hold as many as 10 billion barrels of recoverable oil.

In 1993, the assembly passed a resolution opposing a permanent wilderness designation for the Arctic Coastal Plain. In 2001, the assembly passed a resolution supporting responsible drilling in ANWR.

Hal Spence is a reporter for the Peninsula Clarion.