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Posted on 09/25/2001 5:38:57 AM PDT by RobFromGa

Crisis is not an excuse for drilling Arctic refuge
Staff
Tuesday, September 25, 2001

Citing President Bush's extraordinary approval ratings, hovering at 90 percent, some hard-line conservative activists are urging him to use this time of national crisis --- and rare national unity --- to ram through a narrow conservative political agenda. Their attempts to exploit the devastating terrorist attacks are shameful and cannot be allowed to succeed.

A good example of that exploitation is an amendment to the 2002 Defense Department authorization bill offered last week by Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.). A longtime advocate of opening up the fragile Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for oil drilling, Inhofe wants to add a provision supporting such drilling to the defense appropriations, so urgently needed to fund America's war on terrorism.

Though Bush has voiced his support for drilling in the refuge in the past, the president, to his credit, did not ask for that divisive debate now. And some of Inhofe's staunchest allies have backed off. Last week, Sen. Frank Murkowski (R-Alaska), an ardent supporter of ANWR drilling, took the high road. "It would be inappropriate and in poor taste," said the conservative senator, to take such advantage of a national emergency.

Though Inhofe and other ultra-conservatives insist that the current turmoil in oil-producing countries makes the case for destroying a national environmental treasure, objective studies based on data from the U.S. Geological Survey refute that claim. Independent studies show that increasing fuel economy standards for cars and light trucks by as little as 3 miles per gallon would save more oil in a decade than could ever be recovered from the Arctic refuge. Calling on Americans --- who stand ready for sacrifice as never before --- to conserve energy rather than rely on foreign oil would be a far wiser strategy.

At the same time that Inhofe was pushing his divisive cause, a liberal senator agreed to end his opposition to the missile shield in the name of bipartisan unity. Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) last week withdrew his amendment to the defense bill which would have required the president to get congressional approval before violating the anti-ballistic missile treaty in pursuit of his controversial missile defense plan.

So far, moderates, liberals and many conservatives have been willing to compromise in order to expedite legislation to meet America's new crisis. When it came to bolstering the airline industry, liberal Democrats, who traditionally oppose corporate bailouts, went along. When it came to spending billions to assist the state of New York, fiscally conservative Republicans agreed.

It would be a shame if the hard-core right-wing failed to understand that the political capital this Republican president has rightly gained so far can't be spent on their narrow causes but must be spent on strengthening national resolve in this time of crisis. Narrow partisan factions should not be allowed to exploit this emergency as Congress considers crucial anti-terrorism legislation.

The overwhelming support Americans have shown for the president and Congress can evaporate if they allow partisans --- liberal or conservative --- to drape their self-serving agendas in red, white and blue.

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