Editorial: Admit that ANWR fight is over

Monday, Jan. 30, 2006 | 9:24 a.m.

A few die-hard Republicans are not giving up on despoiling the treasured Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Most Democrats and several Republicans have always opposed oil drilling there on environmental grounds. In recent years, many other Republicans, fearing a backlash at the polls, also have come to oppose it.

But New Mexico's Sen. Pete Domenici, chairman of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, is vowing to get a drilling bill passed one way or the other. He was quoted in the San Francisco Chronicle last week as saying, "We've got to find a way. We think there's one out there."

Domenici and other drilling proponents will be going against history if they mount another push this year. The issue goes back to 1980, when Congress reserved for itself the authority to grant drilling rights in the preserve. The closest Republicans ever got to realizing their dream was 1995, when their majority in both houses prevailed on a drilling bill. But President Bill Clinton vetoed it.

Last year pro-drilling Republicans tried again, reasoning their majority and support from President Bush would win the day. But the Senate, with help from moderate Republicans, stripped a drilling measure from a House-supported energy bill. Later it rejected attempts to enmesh drilling authorization in budget and defense-spending bills.

Drilling in the ANWR is bad public policy. It would put millions of migratory birds and thousands of caribou, polar bears and other wildlife species at grave risk. Also, no oil would flow for at least 10 years, during which time attention should be turned to renewable fuels to reduce our oil dependency.

Domenici and other drilling supporters should admit that attempts to get a drilling bill through Congress are a waste of time. They should turn their energies toward productive energy legislation, such as bills requiring automakers to meet higher fuel-efficiency standards.

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