Letter: This land is our land — even Alaska

Sunday, Jan. 15, 2006 | 7:21 a.m.

In writing about drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, on Dec. 23 Bob Lewicki asks this question in his letter: "Why do we, in the lower 48 states, believe we have the right to dictate whether another sovereign state may or may not extract a resource (oil in this case) from their land?" Rhetorical questions usually don't require an answer, but this one does. And this is it: Because it is not their land; it is our land.

The U.S. government purchased Alaska from Russia, and U.S. citizens paid for it. We all own one share of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. A vast majority of the shareholders live in the lower 48 states.

Congress established the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to preserve arctic wildlife by keeping its habitat wild. It has long been part of the Republican agenda to carve this refuge up with roads and mess it up with pipelines and derricks. Public support in the lower 48 states for keeping the refuge pristine has been strong enough to keep the drill rigs out.

Two other letter writers chastised the Senate for not allowing drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. They were under the delusion that this dinky oil field could solve our dependence on foreign oil and bring the price of gasoline down. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries controls both the supply and the price of oil. A trickle of oil from the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge would not be on the market this decade. It would have no affect on the price or the supply if or when it is exported, and the oil would very likely be sold to Japan.

Vernon Bostick

Las Vegas