March 2004     

The Case for ANWAR

By Richard Hallock

The Democratic Senate of the United States in their infinite wisdom, and their true spirit of total obstructionism some months ago, defeated the Bush Administration's effort to find oil on Alaska's barren northern coast. Environmental wackos, to whom Senator Daschle and his minions are deeply beholden, carried the day with laments, that the caribou and polar bears would no longer breed if the earth were forced to give up some of its oil. Failing to acknowledge that only 2000 - of 6 million acres - (one half of one percent) of the wildlife refuge would be impacted, they moaned that "fish gotta' swim and birds gotta' fly," in spite of the photos of hundreds of caribou lollygagging around the Alaska pipeline shown by Democratic Senator John Breau as he sought positive votes from his partisan colleagues.

Well, never mind. The Saudi crown prince said a while back that they would never use oil as a weapon. Yeah, sure. We believe him, too. Anybody out there remember the OPEC embargo of the early 70s? It only lasted a few weeks but, in Washington D.C. at least, people waited in line for hours to buy a ration of 5 gallons. Even then there were fights in the gas line - much longer and somebody would have shot somebody, for sure.

Nobody knows for certain how much oil there is in ANWAR, except that most in the know believe there is a lot. It will take about two years to get the first quart of crude flowing south. We need to start drilling right now, in the hope that we will have it when we need it. Seems pretty stupid not to have the ability to pump it - even if we never actually need it - especially in view of the true environmental cost which really is zero, no matter the whacko propaganda!

Mild-mannered, totally-partisan, Tom Daschle had decided not to do what makes sense for the nation but, rather, try to make the Republicans look like rapers of the earth. He actually said something like, "We will not let the Republicans destroy our environment." Two thousand acres of remotest Alaska? C'mon Tom! A Colorado cowman could not make a living on 2000 acres. Polar bears and caribou will breed when the urge strikes, notwithstanding on-looking oil workers; and, besides, drilling was to be restricted to the winter months when even the polar bears don't get hormone-driven urges. It's 60 below up there, for cryin' out loud!

Anyway, the Senate collapsed rather than take a chance of losing some votes from wackos (happily, they lost the Senate, anyway). The Democrat's joined-at-the-hip unions wanted the hundreds of high paid jobs; all but two Eskimos wanted the development; we citizens need whatever oil we can get to help mitigate potential Arab boycott; and we don't want to be forced to get rid of our SUVs and our pick-up trucks. Daschle ignored all that for the chance to make President Dubya look bad.

Of course, we all want clean air and water and to preserve the beauty of our nation, but we're not all wackos. Environmental wackos are people who will give up everything you have to stop any progress that might involve the modification of raw nature. Have you noticed that most environmental wackos are nicely situated - good jobs, upscale incomes, homes in the 'burbs, shiny new cars? What do they care about blue collar jobs or high priced gasoline? They have no compunctions about trading your well-being for the convenience of rutting caribou, because it is no skin off their noses. They'll obscure the truth and make up tales from whole-cloth, justifying their actions by their vision of a pure earth - so long, of course, as there is no inconvenience to them.

Americans are independent cusses in most respects. We ought to be as independent as possible in the realm of energy as well - especially when our dependence is primarily on Arab nations, which have proven many times that they are not our friends. We need to drill in ANWAR and wherever else we can get energy with minimal cost to our earth.