The debate about oil and gas exploration in the Yukon has been heated and divisive, but I think there are two things everyone can agree on.
The oil and gas underground are not going anywhere and whatever their value in the market today, they will be worth much more in the future.
There are thousands of uses for petroleum products but at present, for the most part, we use these resources in the coarsest possible way: we burn them up. We extract them carelessly and wastefully and, because they are still so cheap, we use them in the same way.
If we leave the Yukon’s oil and gas where it is now, in a hundred years we will have safer and more efficient methods of extraction, a better understanding of the true value of petroleum resources and, maybe, a different appreciation of undeveloped landscapes.
Eric Hegsted
Whitehorse