It Is Time To Drill For Oil In ANWAR

With the price of gasoline pushing two dollars a gallon; with the United States now forced to import about 60 percent of its oil; and with terrorists now threatening the oil fields of the Middle East, where we get the majority of our foreign oil ... why is it we are not drilling for the abundant supply of oil that we know exists in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in northeastern Alaska? The reason we are not getting oil from the area called ANWR (pronounced Anwar) is simple: environmentalists don't want to disturb the "pristine" nature of that wild, uninhabited by humans, but beautiful area. And the environmentalists have had the liberal political clout to stop any drilling in ANWR even though today's drilling technology would do no damage, and could be accomplished from an area about the size of a football field.

In 1987 President Reagan's Secretary of the Interior recommended to Congress that ANWR be opened for oil and gas leasing. The environmentalists went ballistic, and the Democrat-controlled Congress voted no. Another proposal to drill was defeated by Congress in 1991. Then in 1995, with Congress controlled by Republicans, a provision for drilling in ANWR was passed. President Clinton vetoed it.

Back to where we atarted this conversation: with the price of gasoline pushing two dollars a gallon; with the U. S. importing about 60 percent of our oil; and with terrorists threatening the oil fields of the Middle East ... isn't it about time we came to our senses and started drilling for oil in ANWR?

This is Gordon Sawyer, and may the wind always be at your back.