ANWR under fire again.

Byline: The Register-Guard

U.S. Interior Secretary Gale Norton says American reliance on gasoline-powered vehicles is a compelling, even definitive, rationale for opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas exploration.

Wrong.

Meanwhile, Senate Republicans are working to include a provision on developing oil in ANWR as part of a budget measure that is expected to be taken up by the full Senate this week. Working to sway the votes of several key senators, including Oregon Republican Gordon Smith, they argue that drilling in the arctic refuge is a sensible response to soaring energy prices and a pending war with Iraq that could disrupt Persian Gulf oil supplies.

Wrong again.

Norton is justified in noting that the United States must work to boost domestic energy supplies. But the pristine refuge, home to more than 130 species of birds and one of the hemisphere's largest caribou herds, is first on the list of environmentally sensitive public lands that should remain off limits.

The interior chief reveals her ignorance of this extraordinary treasure and an arrogant willingness to disregard its vulnerability by dismissing it as "flat, white nothingness." Her argument that new technologies would minimize drilling's impact on the environment is undermined by a new report by the National Research Council, the research arm of the National Academies of Science. The report refutes the notion that drilling in ANWR can be accomplished without substantive environmental damage.

As for those opportunistic souls in Congress who crassly seek to justify drilling in the refuge by citing instability in the Middle East, they should prove their sincerity and political courage by first requiring cars and light trucks to get better gas mileage.

New oil and gas production won't solve the nation's energy supply problem for long without conservation measures, including long-overdue and tougher vehicle mileage standards. U.S. fuel economy has been falling since 1987. The average fuel economy in 2001 was 20.4 miles per gallon, the lowest since 1980. Energy consumed by cars and light trucks in the U.S. grew 34 percent between 1975 and 1999. Even if drilling in ANWR were a sound idea, does it really make any sense to pump that oil into SUVs that get 12 mph?

Attempts to link ANWR drilling to the current crisis in Iraq also stretch the bounds of logic. Republicans argue that the refuge's oil - anywhere from 5.6 billion to 16 billion barrels - must be tapped now because of the likelihood of war and general instability in the region. By the time the first ANWR oil would get to refineries, from six to eight years at the earliest, the current Iraq crisis will already be written up in history texts. And even then, these relatively modest deposits, which geologists estimate would satisfy total U.S. demand for just six months, would have a negligible impact on U.S. imports.

All these arguments have been made before and persuaded a majority of Senators to turn back a refuge drilling bill last year in the Senate. The facts haven't changed, yet it appears likely that Senate Republicans will succeed in including a refuge drilling provision as part of a budget measure to be considered by the full Senate this week.

By embedding the ANWR provision in a budget resolution that is not subject to filibuster, the supporters of drilling need only 50 votes to overcome opposition. GOP sources report they have cornered 49 of those votes.

Republicans are hovering over several senators in the hope that they will switch their earlier votes. One is Oregon's Smith, whose opposition to drilling in ANWR bolstered the Republican's wobbly standing with environmentalists in his successful re-election effort last fall.

A Smith spokesman said last week there has been no change in the senator's position on ANWR drilling but declined to speculate on hypothetical future votes - a worrisome precaution.

If, as expected, the hypothetical becomes reality and a drilling provision makes it to the Senate floor, Oregonians will be watching - and expecting Smith to hold firm on protecting the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge from environmental destruction.