By Bonner R. Cohen (NAPSA)—If the Bush Administration and Congress finally agree to limited oil and gas drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), the only endangered specie likely to bite the dust is the canard. Canard, of course, is the French word for “duck”—but over the years it also has come to mean a hoax or false rumor. Unfortunately, Gs many environmen- talists these days are engaging in a canard that threatens both American prosperity and security. They’re spending millions of dollars on a misinformation campaign to persuade Congress not to open a tiny portion of ANWRto petroleum exploration. Eco-activists repeatedly declare that extracting oil and natural gas from one-half of one percent of ANWR’s more than 19.2 million acres will pose a threat to all wildlife residing on that immenseterritory. Aside from the fact that very few of those species inhabit the uninviting coastal plan where the proposed drilling would take place, today’s state-of-the-art drilling techniques allow oil production and a flourishing environmentto exist side-byside. Directional drilling, for example, allows petroleum crews to drill straight down and then angle drill into reservoirsof oil miles away. Indeed, wildlife drawn to the warmth created by oil exploration and transportation are thriving like never before. Caribou, in jeopardy only a few decades ago, have multiplied along the trans-Alaskan pipeline that moves natural gas from Prudhoe Bay in the far north to Port Valdez in the south. One suspects that the true motivesof the environmentalists are simply a by-product of the all-out jihad they’ve been waging for the past three decades against the trappings of an advanced society —one that allows Americans to enjoy the highest standard of living ever recorded. The U.S. Energy Information Administration conservatively estimates that the Alaskan Natural Wildlife Reserve contains upwards of 16-billion barrels of oil. With the U.S. importing roughly 7-million barrels of a day, tapping into that vast reserve would permit our nation to wean itself from Saudi Arabian oil imports for some 45 years. Taking that portion of the current demand out of the global market also would have the salutary effect of cutting prices at filling station pumps dramatically— cuts likely to increase prosperity for both American families and American businesses. Even if Iraq becomes a robust free-market democracy, terrorist sabotage againstoil pipelines makes it an unstable source of supply along with other Middle Eastern nations. Expanding domestic drilling for oil and natural gas—with strict environmental controls—is absolutely vital to America retaining its world economic leadership throughout the 21st century. That objective ought to befirst and foremost on the mindsof federal lawmakers when they begin deliberations on a sweeping energy bill in a few weeks. Doing what’s best for the country will make the eco-activists’ canard a truly lame duck. Bonner R. Cohen is an Adjunct Fellow with the National Center for Public Policy Research, a think-tank in Washington, DC.
