When the Going Gets Tough

While all eyes are on, first, Harriet Miers, and then, finally - probably tomorrow -the arrival of Fitzmas and whatever it will bring, stories on the possibility of opening the Arctic Wildlife Refuge to drilling are most likely slipping past with little notice. So, pay attention here. From today's Washington Post a very good story with the sad little headline of Environmentalists Make Last Stand on Alaskan Drilling. The proposal is hidden in budget legislation in both houses of Congress that has been approved in committees, and will now go to the floors of both chambers for approval. Then, if passed in both, a House-Senate conference committee will meet to iron out differences between the two bills before final votes. There is still a little ways to go, but it all appears to be riding on greased skids towards passage.

Sliding along in the same congenial fashion is the proposal for offshore drilling, in areas long designated out of bounds for such action. Record Energy Prices Breathe New Life into Push for Offshore Drilling, from the Knight/Ridder chain of papers will fill you in on that story. All of this activity is because oil supplies are short, prices are high, and it looks like the only way to continue our petroleum-based lifestyle is to find some more oil in the home territories.

People like the folks at this blog, creatively called "Manufacturers' Blog," on the website of the National Assoc. of Manufacturers, are enthusiastically hoping that both these measures will come to pass. And the sooner the happier. In a nasty little post today they have this to say:

These are not good days to be an environmental activist. The enviros are clearly on the run as public ire rises and people get wise to the fact that we are all literally paying the price for 30 years of bad decisions on energy in this country. If President Clinton hadn't vetoed the bill allowing exploration in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (a place the size of South Carolina with a drilling footprint the size of Dulles Airport), we'd be getting our first oil from there these days. Oh, well, chalk it up to another bad decision for which we pay, and pay, and pay.

And, in the meantime, there is this: Exxon Mobil profit hits 9.92 billion dollars, biggest ever. Yes, indeed, bad energy decisions in this country. Not weaning the nation from its total dependence on petroleum/gas energy; not setting, or enforcing, efficiency standards for the automotive industry; not exploring other energy sources with full dedication and resources, all of these were bad energy decisions. Not Clinton's veto of oil exploration in the ANWR. We are paying and paying and paying. And Exxon is profiting and profiting and profiting.

The manufacturers are right that it's a hard time to be an enviro, but wrong that we're on the run. This enviro is asking you to call, write, fax, email, your Senators and Reps and let them know that the American people are ready to learn new energy paths, in exchange for keeping Alaska's pristine wildlife reserve, Florida's white sand beaches, hell - even New Jersey's honky tonk beaches, California's wild rocky oceanfront stretches, what remains of the migratory bird resting areas on the Gulf of Mexico. These are the real American treasures, not our miles of interstate highways and the vehicles that own us.

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