Alaska's Petroleum Industry Without the Energy Crisis?

Delta Force

Banned
The North Slope petroleum and gas fields were discovered in 1968, but there was major controversy over how to get the petroleum and natural gas out. Following the 1973 Energy Crisis there was a big push to increase domestic petroleum production, and development approval for Prudhoe Bay and the Trans-Alaska Pipeline were fast tracked. The production from the field was so massive that the United States actually had a secondary peak in petroleum production in the late 1980s.

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Of course, by the time Alaskan production came online and the fields peaked, the 1980s petroleum glut was occurring, and it wasn't worth as much as it could have been. By the 1980s climate change was also starting to become a concern.

What might have happened to Alaska's petroleum industry without the Energy Crisis? Would Prudhoe Bay have eventually been developed?
 

Delta Force

Banned
Would the Alaska petroleum projects have been able to survive the environmental regulations of the 1970s without a serious push in favor of the project from Congress and the President? If they were stopped then, could they possibly come back later?
 
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