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 --- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - To get off the IOWA-TOPICS list, send any message to: [log in to unmask]