ANWR: Canadians skeptical of Bush's policies

President Bush's desire to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to
oil
drilling has drawn fire from Canadian Environment Minister David
Anderson.

Anderson is concerned that oil exploration in Alaska could endanger
migrating caribou herds, which northern Canadian Indians need for food.
In
addition, Anderson opposes the construction of a pipeline from Alaska to
the
rest of the continental United States, which likely would run through
Canada's Yukon territory (Joel Baglole, Wall Street Journal
<http://interactive.wsj.com/archive/retrieve.cgi?id=SB980984196597078573.djm

&template=atlas.tmpl>  [subscription required], Feb. 1).
How's it playing?

Greenwire rounds up the latest commentary on ANWR:

An Atlanta Constitution
<http://www.accessatlanta.com/partners/ajc/epaper/editions/thursday/opinion_

a397703b03ce51be00fd.html>  editorial asks, "Can George W. Bush really
have
interpreted his hair's-breadth campaign victory as a mandate for an
assault
on this nation's environmental and health standards?" The paper: "More
oil
won't help California's electricity shortage; oil accounts for less than
1
percent of the state's power generation. More natural gas might help,
but
the Arctic refuge is nowhere close to the best source for that" (Feb.
1).

A Los Angeles Times
<http://www.latimes.com/news/comment/20010131/t000009018.html>
editorial:
"The amount of oil thought to be there is not enough to significantly
ease
the United States' dependence on foreign oil. Nor is it enough to
outweigh
the value of this region as a wilderness home to caribou, wolves, bears,

musk oxen and hundreds of other species." The paper adds, "California's
power crisis was not caused by environmental extremism. Neither drilling
in
the Alaskan Arctic nor lectures from the White House will help solve it"

(Jan. 31).

A New York Times <http://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/31/opinion/31WED1.html>

editorial: "Mr. Bush's plan to open the refuge is as environmentally
unsound
and intellectually shaky as it was when Ronald Reagan suggested it 20
years
ago and when Mr. Bush's father suggested it a decade ago." The paper:
"What
Congress should insist on instead is a comprehensive energy strategy
that
emphasizes conservation as well as exploration and does not rely on old
clichés like 'freeing America' from foreign oil - an impossibility under
any
circumstances - or on unnecessary invasions of fragile public lands"
(Jan.
31).

A Portland Oregonian
<http://www.oregonlive.com/oped/index.ssf?/oped/oregonian/01/01/ed_61att26.f

rame>  editorial: "There's not enough oil potential in the Arctic
reserve to
justify the likely environmental damage - most experts believe there's
only
enough oil and gas beneath the Arctic plain to supply the nation's needs
for
three to six months." The paper: "President Bush and Congress must
create an
energy plan for this country that does not include damaging one of its
last
enchanted landscapes" (Jan. 26.)

In a Tacoma News Tribune <http://www.tribnet.com/opinion/0126b51.html>
op-ed, Jerry Taylor of the Cato Institute writes, "If we want to
maximize
the benefits that the refuge can provide to the American people, we
should
privatize it and let market agents, not politicians, decide whether to
drill
or not to drill." He adds, "When environmentalist organizations manage
their
own lands, they often allow industry access under the right terms and
conditions. In fact, turning the refuge over to the conservationists
might
be the only way the oil industry will ever have a shot at exploiting
those
potentially rich fields" (Jan. 26).

A Washington Post
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A3418-2001Jan16.html>
op-ed
by Joe Linklater and Faith Gemmill of the Gwich'in Nation says the
indigenous people "have nothing to gain and everything to lose if
drilling
occurs." The authors: "Oil drilling may cost us our very existence. We
believe the obliteration of a 20,000-year old culture is too great a
price
to pay for a few dollars in the pocket today" (Jan. 17). - DIL


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