Republicans who saw the November elections as
a mandate for easing environmental laws are once again attempting
to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling. This
time, with no meaningful political opposition, it’s quite
likely that they will finally succeed. Americans interested in the
kind of world their children will inherit should pay attention to
what is taking place in the North Slope of Alaska. As House
Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, menacingly said in September
2003, this battle is less about oil than about
“precedent.”
Congressmen who have been flown over ANWR in
oil-company jets have stood before cameras owned by media
conglomerates and told us that the North Slope is a wasteland atop
an endless supply of oil. In fact, quite the opposite is true. The
North Slope is home to polar and grizzly bears, wolverines, musk
oxen, wolves, and the Porcupine caribou herd. The Gwich’in
people have lived in symbiosis with this herd for at least 10,000 years. All the
beauty and magnificence we associate with the Arctic is there,
intact and in abundance.
Less impressive are the oil reserves under
ANWR. The U.S. Geological Survey estimates there are 3.2 billion
barrels of oil there. This sounds like a lot, but we Americans are
consuming 7.1 billion barrels a year, and that number is expected
to grow. At best, ANWR would provide a six-month supply of oil. ANWR is
not even remotely a solution for our energy problems.
The Bush administration knows this. As DeLay
said, this is about precedent. The interests who own the government
see ANWR as a symbol of resistance to a neoconservative society. In
this worldview, there is no reason for the existence of undisturbed
wilderness, old-growth redwoods, family farms, or public schools.
Everything is a commodity.
The only solution to our energy problems is
conservation. Oil is a drug, and we Americans are addicts. We
represent 4 percent of the world’s population, yet we consume
25 percent of the world’s oil production. In 1975 we imported
35 percent of our oil; we now purchase 54 percent from abroad, and
unless we change our behavior, we will import 70 percent of our oil by 2025. We have become a tyrannical,
militaristic nation largely because of our addiction to oil.
There is much we could do to reduce our
dependence on oil. Increasing average fuel efficiency to 39 miles a
gallon, something we have the ability to do now, would save 51
billion barrels of oil over the next 50 years. This is 15 times
more oil than we could get from ANWR. Our current fuel-efficiency
standards are 25 years old and were written before we evolved into
a nation of SUV drivers. This administration has created loopholes
exempting vehicles weighing more than 8,500 pounds (such as the
Hummer H2) from any fuel-efficiency standards whatsoever, and
efforts to fund solar- and wind-energy programs have been
repeatedly rejected.
Under our current pro forma democracy, I am
pessimistic that we can save ANWR and other national treasures from
the auction block. Both political parties are owned by the
petroleum-military complex and will do nothing to address the
issues that face this nation. The only hope is an awakened, engaged
American electorate. At the moment, it does not appear that the
interests in power have anything to fear.
This article appears in Feb 24 – Mar 2, 2005.
