The author snapped this picture of 48" oil pipe stacked --too long--at Prudhoe Bay in 1975. Alaska leaders supported passage of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971, which helped guide Congress (i.e. By the one Senate vote of Vice President Agnew) to approve the project a half decade later. The Trans-Alaska Pipeline System was completed and the economies of Alaska and the U.S. were significantly strengthened. Caribou presence and wildlife protection in the area, perhaps contrary to popular myth, have improved as well. But with oil production from [...]