Environmental Roulette

Thursday, the Senate once again blocked an attempt to allow drilling in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). Once again the bogus argument of protecting the pristine wilderness prevailed over truth. The truth is that the environmental movement has decided that ANWR is their line in the sand. Like those for and against gun control and those for abortion, the anti-drilling greenies will not concede one inch. No drilling in ANWR, no drilling off Florida, no drilling off the Eastern seaboard.

The truth is out about the drilling area and both sides know it. For too long, the MSM and Democrats have been complicit in the deception. Each televison news report about this debate has been accompanied by video of majestic mountain ranges and wild flowing rivers. To better understand the facts and the left's great deception about ANWR read this speech given by Gale Norton, Secretary of the Interior.

Almost nothing in this video is representative of the Coastal Plain of ANWR. We call it the Coastal Plain because it is just that—a plain. There are no trees, there are no deepwater lakes. There are no mountains like those in the video.

In 1980, in section 1002 of the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, President Carter and the Congress set aside 1.5 million acres of the coastal plain for potential exploration and development: the 1002 area. They did so because of initial indications of the area’s energy potential.

The potential daily production from the 1002 area alone is larger than the current daily onshore oil production of any lower 48 state. Once again, the estimated daily production from ANWR would exceed what is now being produced in any individual State, including Texas and Louisiana.

We are addicted to middle eastern oil and the petro-dollars have funded terrorism for too many years now and yet we will not take even small steps toward energy independence. Even with the war in Iraq and hurricane Katrina causing significant financial pain at the pumps, we refuse to see the gathering threat posed by this addiction to mid-east oil. America's energy policy is shackled by environmentalist ideologues consumed by a lust for control without regard for truth. We continue to ignore the facts at our peril. Perhaps the American public is ignorant about the facts concerning ANWR but Congress is not. They know the truth and yet too many of them put partisan concerns and special interest constituencies above the greater good of the American public. The Democrats and a few Republicans are playing the pandering game of Environmental Roulette. One of these days, after one pull too many, the results are going to be very ugly.