When my buddy Ryan came back from a six-week canoe trip through the Canadian wilderness this summer, I was lucky enough to hear a lot from some other groups from Camp Widjiwagan who had gone on other backcountry trips. A couple of the groups were women backpackers who went on insane hikes in Alaska, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), to be exact.
Their stories were incredible. This was trekking miles and miles of pure wilderness. No trails. Raging rivers. Beautiful passes and alpine meadows. Solitude and wildlife and everything else that you could think of when you think of a small piece of the globe largely untouched by the white man’s hands.
It really brought home to me that the desire of some people to drill for oil in ANWR was not just disgusting because it is so short-sighted and disrespectful, but because this was a truly beautiful and wild area that our sick little system now wants to invade with machinery. As I listened to their stories and description of the land, I mentally juxtaposed what I was hearing described with the idea of diesel fumes, roads ripped through the fragile land, big yellow Caterpillar machines and oil platforms and noise and garbage and everything we bring with us when we set out to inhabit a new place, no matter how sparsely.
Luckily, we have so far been lucky in stopping any drilling in ANWR. But, the Republicans are on the attack again, this time with their most back-door method yet, and sadly, what could be their most successful:
Republican leaders indicated Tuesday that they plan to press the issue of drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge as part of a so-called budget reconciliation process, which cannot be subject to a Democratic filibuster — a tactic that has blocked the refuge’s development in the past.
Given the wider GOP majority in the Senate, Republicans said they think they have the best chance yet to open part of the presumably oil-rich but environmentally sensitive Alaska refuge to oil drilling, which has been one of President Bush’s top energy priorities.
Budget Committee Chairman Judd Gregg, R-N.H. said it was reasonable to assume ANWR, as the refuge is commonly called, would be part of the budget measure.
“The president asked for it, and we’re trying to do what the president asked for,†Gregg said Tuesday after meeting privately with Republicans on his panel.
Isn’t it sad to think that the people in charge of America’s public lands and natural resources are supporting something like this? It’s one thing for the energy secretary or somebody in that kind of position to support it, but these people?
A small group of senators and key administration officials is flying to Alaska’s North Slope this weekend to try to dramatize their argument that the refuge can be developed in an environmentally sound way, using modern drilling technology. They will visit the refuge and North slope oil drilling activities west of the protected area.
The group includes Interior Secretary Gale Norton, who has been there a number of times; the new energy secretary, Samuel Bodman, making his first trip; James Connaughton, head of the White House Council on Environmental Quality; and GOP Sens. Domenici, John Thune of South Dakota, Jim Bunning of Kentucky and Robert Bennett of Utah.
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