ANWR

Last week's New Yorker piece regarding our dependence on foreign oil mentions, but does not dwell on, the debate over drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. I notice that both the Republican incumbent and the Democratic challenger (who is currently the governor) are pro-drilling. (The challenger, Tony Knowles, also suggested that because he is a Democrat, he may have an easier time convincing other Democrats to drill. Senator Kerry, by the way, was among those defending preservation in this PBS spot almost two years ago; his energy plan relies more on other hydrocarbons such as coal and natural gas.)

I have to admit that reading John McPhee's wonderful Coming Into The Country has changed my view of the state -- it's really a vast place, and the act of drilling would despoil a relatively small part. (The same issues of conservation, preservation, and stewardship arise in McPhee's Encounters With The Archdruid, the best simple account of environmental wrestling I've ever seen.) And my visit to Lake Powell last summer, with a pair of environmental scientists, sharpened the point: of course something beautiful was destroyed to create something useful to humans, but would I ever have seen the beautiful place at all if it weren't for the destruction?

Still, the keys to farsighted environmental policy include realizing that the planet doesn't revolve around human needs, seeing around corners, making assumptions about what you don't know about the future, and erring on the side of environmental prudence when necessary. We would have to view drilling as a desperate act in order to make it happen, and quite simply, we're not desperate. I paid $2.47 a gallon yesterday, and although that's just about the highest price in the country right now, it's still worlds better than what they pay in Europe or Asia. "Many Americans also appear to believe that they are entitled to cheap fuel, regardless of how much they consume," writes John Cassidy in the New Yorker piece. "[F]rom an energy perspective an extended period of higher fuel prices might well be just what the country needs." And he quotes Clinton's Assistant Secretary of Energy, Joseph Romm, as saying, "If people cared about oil imports they would buy different cars. In response to 9/11, people started putting flags on their S.U.V.s and buying Hummers. That tells you something." All true. Drilling in the ANWR should be a last resort -- a concept the current Administration doesn't quite understand, it seems.