Ryding’s Blog

Title:

Interview with Mr. Adrian Herrera, Spokesperson for Arctic Power in Alaska.

Summary:

Adam Herrera is a University of Oregon graduate with a bachelors degree in political science from the U or O, and a masters degree in logistics from the University of Westminster in London, England.  Herrera currently works as a spokesperson for Arctic Power, a citizen-based grassroots organization stationed in Alaska.  Herrera was nice enough to recently have a lengthy phone conversation with me detailing his perspectives on the possibility of oil drilling in the National Arctic Wildlife Reserve (ANWR).  His predominate messages were that the environmental concerns of oil drilling in the region are commonly exaggerated, the U.S. has not performed the proper oil tests on the ANWR, and consequently the debate to this point has not been based on proper logic.

Topic:

Should the United States experiment with oil drilling on the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve (ANWR) in an attempt to reduce our dependence on foreign oil?

Category:

Citizen, expert source

This source was a telephone interview between Mr. Herrera and myself.

Publication Information:

Most of the information shared in this interview by Mr. Herrera has not yet been properly accumulated, sorted and published, and will likely not be published on this site.  However, for further questions and specifics on this interview please contact Jeff Ryding at Ryding’s Blog, or e-mail him at ryding@uoregon.edu.

The interview was conducted on the morning of March 9, 2009.

Author:

There is no author for this source in the typical sense, but all of the information comes from the mouth of Arctic Power’s Adrian Herrera, and was gathered by Jeff Ryding. 

Location:

There is no online location for this source, but notes on the interview are available upon request.

Accessed:

My initial conversation with Mr. Herrera was on the morning of Sunday, March 8, 2009.  The formal interview took place the next morning on Monday, March 9, 2009.

Support:

Arctic Power- organization responsible for Herrera’s current employment and resources.

The state of Alaska- provides a portion of the funding for Arctic Power.

U.S. Congress- there are currently 19 bills on the ANWR in Congress, which is more than any other issue present in the United States.

Arctic Power and the State of Alaska give validity to Herrera’s position, and solidify him as a professional on the issue.  The bills in Congress indicate how much of an issue the ANWR has become in the United States, and why Herrera’s work has become so important and necessary.

Audience and Agenda:

The initial audience for this source was solely myself.  However, it was clear throughout the interview that Mr. Herrera had the additional agenda of informing me as much as possible, in order to properly spread his information and perspectives on the issue to as many American citizens as possible.  Herrera has worked with Arctic Power since 2003, and is currently in the position of spokesperson for the organization in regards to the ANWR.  The funding for Arctic Power comes from both the State of Alaska and private contributions.  In order to ensure that political agendas play as little a role in the organization as possible, none of Arctic Power’s capital comes from the federal government.  While it is unclear how many individuals Herrera reaches personally with his message, the Arctic Power website http://www.anwr.org/ hosts roughly 7,000 U.S. citizens each month.

Usefulness:

This source was exceptionally useful to my argument because Herrera was able to address and help me comprehend the perspective that most Alaskan citizens take on my topic question.  Herrera effectively shifted my entire stance on the issue through the introduction of new ideas, statistics and viewpoints.  He views the issue as strongly misrepresented in the United States (partially due to political agendas), and for this reason permitted the phone interview to help solidify common knowledge on the debate over ANWR.  The major arguments Herrera made in the phone interview were:

• Oil drilling and the Trans-Atlantic Pipeline are more than beneficial factors in Alaska, they are crucial in maintaining a comfortable way of life in a region that has an immense amount of land and very few people.
• The projected negative environmental effects that would result from drilling on the ANWR are typically greatly exaggerated, and are not of major concern to most Alaskan habitants.
• The debate over this region is based on statistics that are either outdated and irrelevant, or comprised mostly of speculation.  Proper surveys and research need to be done in order to develop an entirely logical view of what exactly should be done in the region.

Works cited:

• U.S. Congress-

http://www.house.gov/

• Arctic Power-

http://www.anwr.org/

• The State of Alaska-

http://www.state.ak.us/

• http://www.quantcast.com/

http://www.quantcast.com/anwr.org